been busy driving a bunch of koreans all over the state of mn today (at 14.3 mpg in a rental van). Got a few minutes back at the office, while a burn some files to cds for them before dinner out in wyzeta. at least I have a little job security for the next few months since nobody else knows what these folks want the way I do.
tomorrow, we visit the U, the state capitol, and 2 more meeting before dinner at a country club. wooheee...
sarah, layoffs have always given me opportunities to get a better job. it's painful till you land on your feet. good luck.
Sarah, on the left side there should be an edit button, when you select that you have the option of planting markers. i know there is a better tool for doing this, i will work on it and make it work.
i just had a big scene in building dept.
i was there for the second time on an 'appointment' plan check, and for the second time the guy said he can't see me. i have been going wla dept. for 20 years and this rookie plan checker is abusive toward me on top of that i wasted my time (on appointment!) for the second time on a minor remodel plan with all corrections done and clearances secured. my client and i felt like abused and i let him have it. i told him that this is an abusive behavior and we need to work together and he shouldn't feel like he is above everyone just because he sits on the other side of the counter. he said he doesn't need to work with me.
it is just so unfortunate these people become plan checkers and they think they rule the world and everyone has to kiss their ass.
it is disgusting they treat people like this, and afterward they call permit applicants "customers."
my client saw the whole thing, and he was with me last time too. he'll go all the way to top people in ladbs if necessary, i know he will.
i am just tired and disappointed after believing that we as professional architects and building dept. people have to work together to the benefit of public. it is all bullshit. building dept. is for smooth talking and perhaps bribing slick developers passing a major remodeling with few code violations as a kitchen remodel.
this is ultimately what building dept. thinks of architects, "i don't need you."
Dub K, that photo looks like some apocalypse scene, devastating. On a completely different note, and perhaps a cultural perception but I didn't know trailor/mobile home communities had stop/street signs. So you just got a double wow from me.
Ack I'm so tired. I had a full day. Which is quite odd for someone who works part-time. I'm busily trying to get a project out the door and off to the apparently dreaded planning office. After O's post I'm going to have to be on my best behaviour both in making sure my drawings satisfy all and when I do meet with the plan checkers that I don't rip their spline out via their nostrils.
Hi Sarah!!
Also I'm a little distressed, I've returned home and am focussed on getting registered to be a licensed professional. I was advised after numerous meetings that due to the length of service overseas, and which capacity I had served that I would only need 12 months of log time with a registered architect. So fine and content that I could adjust my life around a year, lo and behold in speaking with a former school mate that's just opened his office, that this may not be so since I was not licensed overseas. Hmmm...I've been a grump all day. Worse that I won't be able to talk to someone to resolve until much later in the week.
Orhan,
Sounds frustrating. I can only imagine. Having worked in a government bureaucracy before sounds like it was in best form today...
Also, i have been meaning to call you but have been busy catching up with things post-vacation. I will try this week though..
SH,
I am fairly familiar with the annoying intricacies of unemployment. After grad school i tried to sign up because my in graduate school job with the university ended when i graduated. However, it turned out that in Florida (and maybe some other states) if you held your job while in school full-time, even if it was a full-time job and your only source of income, you do not qualify for unemployment.. I was like what!!! and then had to struggle to make ends meet for 6 months.... Anyways... Good luck with it and hopefully you find a job soon. Especially, since fromw hat i remember the money isn't even that good???
Also, I think you can do your reporting via an 800 #, at least you can in FL.
Rationalist, glad to hear good things are in the works, even if you do need to keep them a mystery for now!
I am down for a group hug. Also on a totally unrelated topic, if anyone needs any variety of lip gloss or balm, I am here for you. Due to persistent chapped lips (a result of 9% relative humidity?) I now have no less than 8 varieties on me at all times. It's ridiculous but I'm just saying.
Puddles and WonderK, i always now it is the holiday season when
1) i start seeing champagne commercials in print and on TV.
and
2) when i start "collecting" unnecessary amounts of lipgloss due to the ability of those tiny tubes to temporarily "dissapear"
Also, i am totally down with a group hug and/or just hugging in general.
Orhan - sorry to hear about your building dept. debacle. That kind of behavior is completely uncalled for and disrespectful. Is there any way for this guy to be reprimanded. If so I hope you and your client let him have it.
Atechno - that sucks. Now what?
DubK - my lips are so chapped that I split my lower lip by just smiling. Yay winter :o/
Monday morning started with panicked calls from both my contractor and partner that our Highly Visible house project had been visited by the historic neighborhood busybodies because the owner started construction of a fence over the weekend. We had nothing to do with the fence and their landscape designer assured them that it did not need to be approved by the commission (which WE would have told them was not true if they had bothered to ask us).
I go to the house and am assured by the owner that all is well, they've stopped work on the fence and will seek approval for it but the commission said it won't hold up their move in date of one week from today. In the meantime, the two door openings on the back of the house that we enlarged are in question. They are invisible from the street and are a change to a later addition to the house, not the original historic structure, and when the contractor pulled the building permit we were not sent to the historic commission, so we're thinking it's OK. But with these busybodies inviting themselves to wander around your yard, well, one never knows.
I went back to the house later in the afternoon and surprise! A nicely dressed older woman is coming out of the basement - my first thought was "banker" and I said hello and walked upstairs. Then, I panicked. The GC wasn't around, only the painters and they don't know anything, they wouldn't stop anyone from coming in, what if this is the neighborhood preservation czar poking around?!
So I went back downstairs and she's fled through the back door and is in her car on the way down the driveway. I had a total James Bond moment - I don't really know what came over me but the stresses of the day congealed into me jumping into my car and chasing after her. I photographed her license plate and followed her for a good mile (as it happened she was going the same way I was going anyway) before turning off and calling the GC. He, pissed off that these neighborhood people have entered the house without permission, calls the owner to tell them these people have crossed a line and we have a battle on our hands.
Turns out it was the banker. I'm afraid now I might have scared her.....
kool anecdotes day. not hapy ones, but intereresting.
sorry to hear that orhan. i wonder if japan is different or if i am so far just lucky. usually we work with approal-giving people as partners, really. it may be because japan's laws are performance based rather than prescriptive...and the always present japnese tendency to be polite. not that they don't drive us mad, but disrespect is not so common here. anyway, hope you get it all resolved soonest.
rationalist, totally looking forward to the cool big news! it is always kool when people you know do well.
so nbc is using "green" as their mantra this week and i noticed that they have sent their news faces to different parts of the globe to talk about whatever global issues they are talking about. wtf??? hey theres global warming time to put al, meredith and matt on big ol jet airliners and send them to different parts of the world to report it. wtf? don't they see how stupid this is???
everything green is so stupid these days & i'm sick of it. from now on, i'm doing everything i can to destroy the planet as quickly as possible* can someone point in the direction of a cadillac dealer? it's time for an escalade
*oddly, i suspect that even with my new strategy, the planet will probably survive longer than me.
puddles you can buy a hybrid escalade! gas is cheaper than when i bought my car in 2004. if everyone wasn't worried about being laid off or having been already laid off, the suvs would be flying off the lot again. this is the perfect storm that has wrecked the big three not bad management. before the speculators drove the price of oil up gm stock was 42 bucks a share, now its about 2. take a look toyotoa honda and nissan all produce gas guzzlers as well. land cruisers, titans, ridgelines etc...personally i am waiting for that car commercial where the hubby surprises his wife with a new luxury car for christmas. you know the one that has a red ribbon on it in the driveway. gag.
and forget about using the drive-throu at mcdonald's. i'm going to go inside to get by food and make my driver sit in the parking lot with the engine running the whole time.
Philarct, when I hear "2012" and "don't want to happen" in the same sentence I immediately think of Sarah Palin. Cool preview. But I wonder if Google is getting a cut of the ad campaign?
Engine running story: in 1997 or thereabouts Oprah Winfrey went to an auction of Shaker items in Kentucky. She loves the simplicity of the Shaker style, you see. While she bid on and won several items, including IIRC a Shaker box for about $10,000 her driver sat in her limo in the parking lot with the engine running.
nam, gainesville texas is north of dallas, almost to oklahoma.
in light of the green talk, you LEEDers may have seen this, but the [url=http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=148
]LEED for Neighborhood Development[/url] is now open for public comment
Morning, afternoon? I dont know how stay at home moms do it. I think I could handle stay at home wife, maybe even stay at home mom of a 6 year old, but not an infant. Theres too much stuff to do, and if Abe can see me, he wants me. So I'm currently crouched behind the couch hoping that he goes to sleep soon.
A thread on the exciting times of unemployment, huh? There isn't much to tell.
Crap, I had a phone call, and He heard me. Shhhhh.
Oooh thanks Philarct, I love a good disaster movie. I took the bait - searching for 2012 yields lots and lots of info about the Mayan calendar and the predictions of the world ending on December 21, 2012. It's a very interesting subject for those of you who haven't heard much of it, I encourage the Google search.
liberty bell, your banker should be scared ... they should all be scared! Good for you for turning into Bond ...Liberty Bond.
I figured it'd be funny. Normally, Abe will sleep on his own IF you stay out of sight, but no, not this week. Apparently, he's changed the plan on me, and must be rocked to sleep. He should send out a memo next time.
Melt, you've complained about them before, but I figured it was a fluke thing. Do people really draw stair elevations? I haven't drawn through a stair since school. All of the ones we did at work were just in plan, and it was basically "Heres a stair, do your thing Contractor."
Sarah, keep in mind this is what kids do: As soon as you get used to one thing, they start doing something else. No memos - kids are of the "ask for forgiveness not permission" attitude.
I'm about to sign a contract for a public job for the City. Which means we need E&O insurance and all that crap we've avoided by staying in the residential business. The fee isn't all that great either, and the potential for problems is enormous. I'm not sure I want this job, but I'm excited about the cute little design we did. I'll go ahead and give you guys a glimpse of what it is:
I mean, it's nothing ground-breaking, but it's cute. It's an object I'd like to see in the world. The question is: does my desire to see it outweigh the total PITA I know it will be getting it here?
Thread Central
been busy driving a bunch of koreans all over the state of mn today (at 14.3 mpg in a rental van). Got a few minutes back at the office, while a burn some files to cds for them before dinner out in wyzeta. at least I have a little job security for the next few months since nobody else knows what these folks want the way I do.
tomorrow, we visit the U, the state capitol, and 2 more meeting before dinner at a country club. wooheee...
sarah, layoffs have always given me opportunities to get a better job. it's painful till you land on your feet. good luck.
Sarah, on the left side there should be an edit button, when you select that you have the option of planting markers. i know there is a better tool for doing this, i will work on it and make it work.
Hey n_....
Here you go. It's so awesome.
Sarah I think you should start a (or find an old) thread about the trials and tribulations of going through unemployment. I mean, if you're up for it.
Wow, beta! I just now realized that you can do open collaborations on Google maps! That's awesome! I don't think that's always been an option....
Sorry, overusing the "awesome" today. Awesome.
i just had a big scene in building dept.
i was there for the second time on an 'appointment' plan check, and for the second time the guy said he can't see me. i have been going wla dept. for 20 years and this rookie plan checker is abusive toward me on top of that i wasted my time (on appointment!) for the second time on a minor remodel plan with all corrections done and clearances secured. my client and i felt like abused and i let him have it. i told him that this is an abusive behavior and we need to work together and he shouldn't feel like he is above everyone just because he sits on the other side of the counter. he said he doesn't need to work with me.
it is just so unfortunate these people become plan checkers and they think they rule the world and everyone has to kiss their ass.
it is disgusting they treat people like this, and afterward they call permit applicants "customers."
my client saw the whole thing, and he was with me last time too. he'll go all the way to top people in ladbs if necessary, i know he will.
i am just tired and disappointed after believing that we as professional architects and building dept. people have to work together to the benefit of public. it is all bullshit. building dept. is for smooth talking and perhaps bribing slick developers passing a major remodeling with few code violations as a kitchen remodel.
this is ultimately what building dept. thinks of architects, "i don't need you."
obviously i am still fuming.
Orhan by all means, let them have it. I agree with you and I think building departments have too much power.
I just had to share this photo from the fires here:
launch a pop up window to see it ...typical California.
Dub K, that photo looks like some apocalypse scene, devastating. On a completely different note, and perhaps a cultural perception but I didn't know trailor/mobile home communities had stop/street signs. So you just got a double wow from me.
Ack I'm so tired. I had a full day. Which is quite odd for someone who works part-time. I'm busily trying to get a project out the door and off to the apparently dreaded planning office. After O's post I'm going to have to be on my best behaviour both in making sure my drawings satisfy all and when I do meet with the plan checkers that I don't rip their spline out via their nostrils.
Hi Sarah!!
Also I'm a little distressed, I've returned home and am focussed on getting registered to be a licensed professional. I was advised after numerous meetings that due to the length of service overseas, and which capacity I had served that I would only need 12 months of log time with a registered architect. So fine and content that I could adjust my life around a year, lo and behold in speaking with a former school mate that's just opened his office, that this may not be so since I was not licensed overseas. Hmmm...I've been a grump all day. Worse that I won't be able to talk to someone to resolve until much later in the week.
Orhan,
Sounds frustrating. I can only imagine. Having worked in a government bureaucracy before sounds like it was in best form today...
Also, i have been meaning to call you but have been busy catching up with things post-vacation. I will try this week though..
SH,
I am fairly familiar with the annoying intricacies of unemployment. After grad school i tried to sign up because my in graduate school job with the university ended when i graduated. However, it turned out that in Florida (and maybe some other states) if you held your job while in school full-time, even if it was a full-time job and your only source of income, you do not qualify for unemployment.. I was like what!!! and then had to struggle to make ends meet for 6 months.... Anyways... Good luck with it and hopefully you find a job soon. Especially, since fromw hat i remember the money isn't even that good???
Also, I think you can do your reporting via an 800 #, at least you can in FL.
Rationalist, glad to hear good things are in the works, even if you do need to keep them a mystery for now!
Hi, n_ DubK, ***melt and TK......
Goodnight all.
Hi guys, just checking in. I think we all probably need a group hug about now. Bolstered by my good friends Jack and Coke, of course.
I am down for a group hug. Also on a totally unrelated topic, if anyone needs any variety of lip gloss or balm, I am here for you. Due to persistent chapped lips (a result of 9% relative humidity?) I now have no less than 8 varieties on me at all times. It's ridiculous but I'm just saying.
i love champagne...it's makes celebrating so much more fun
Good morning...
Puddles and WonderK, i always now it is the holiday season when
1) i start seeing champagne commercials in print and on TV.
and
2) when i start "collecting" unnecessary amounts of lipgloss due to the ability of those tiny tubes to temporarily "dissapear"
Also, i am totally down with a group hug and/or just hugging in general.
Orhan - sorry to hear about your building dept. debacle. That kind of behavior is completely uncalled for and disrespectful. Is there any way for this guy to be reprimanded. If so I hope you and your client let him have it.
Atechno - that sucks. Now what?
DubK - my lips are so chapped that I split my lower lip by just smiling. Yay winter :o/
Group hug indeed.
Hi nam_
hugging sucks. that's why the internet is so great...you don't have to touch anybody...or even look at them.
is a really interesting article given our recent discussion. I read it to the end (it's very short -- CNN news).
Orhan, here is a story for you:
Monday morning started with panicked calls from both my contractor and partner that our Highly Visible house project had been visited by the historic neighborhood busybodies because the owner started construction of a fence over the weekend. We had nothing to do with the fence and their landscape designer assured them that it did not need to be approved by the commission (which WE would have told them was not true if they had bothered to ask us).
I go to the house and am assured by the owner that all is well, they've stopped work on the fence and will seek approval for it but the commission said it won't hold up their move in date of one week from today. In the meantime, the two door openings on the back of the house that we enlarged are in question. They are invisible from the street and are a change to a later addition to the house, not the original historic structure, and when the contractor pulled the building permit we were not sent to the historic commission, so we're thinking it's OK. But with these busybodies inviting themselves to wander around your yard, well, one never knows.
I went back to the house later in the afternoon and surprise! A nicely dressed older woman is coming out of the basement - my first thought was "banker" and I said hello and walked upstairs. Then, I panicked. The GC wasn't around, only the painters and they don't know anything, they wouldn't stop anyone from coming in, what if this is the neighborhood preservation czar poking around?!
So I went back downstairs and she's fled through the back door and is in her car on the way down the driveway. I had a total James Bond moment - I don't really know what came over me but the stresses of the day congealed into me jumping into my car and chasing after her. I photographed her license plate and followed her for a good mile (as it happened she was going the same way I was going anyway) before turning off and calling the GC. He, pissed off that these neighborhood people have entered the house without permission, calls the owner to tell them these people have crossed a line and we have a battle on our hands.
Turns out it was the banker. I'm afraid now I might have scared her.....
Piano to unveil Kimball plans today
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Dallas Morning News
Thanks for posting here, ryanj! From my 30-second perusal it looks pretty good...
Busy day. More later.
i love that dallas puts in in the entertainment section.
I think so, too. Although, there is a very nice site section in the printed ST that is not shown online. Will scan if I have time...
I noticed that too Steven, and no images...ughh! I love Fort Worth; Dallas, not so much.
kool anecdotes day. not hapy ones, but intereresting.
sorry to hear that orhan. i wonder if japan is different or if i am so far just lucky. usually we work with approal-giving people as partners, really. it may be because japan's laws are performance based rather than prescriptive...and the always present japnese tendency to be polite. not that they don't drive us mad, but disrespect is not so common here. anyway, hope you get it all resolved soonest.
rationalist, totally looking forward to the cool big news! it is always kool when people you know do well.
Nevermind, I found the site section
Hi RyanJ.....
Thanks for the post.
Haven't seen you much here lately.
Yeahhh, new job...trying to impress. You know how it goes.
nam...you're in gainesville, fl, right? not gainesville, tx...cuz that would be awful.
so nbc is using "green" as their mantra this week and i noticed that they have sent their news faces to different parts of the globe to talk about whatever global issues they are talking about. wtf??? hey theres global warming time to put al, meredith and matt on big ol jet airliners and send them to different parts of the world to report it. wtf? don't they see how stupid this is???
everything green is so stupid these days & i'm sick of it. from now on, i'm doing everything i can to destroy the planet as quickly as possible* can someone point in the direction of a cadillac dealer? it's time for an escalade
*oddly, i suspect that even with my new strategy, the planet will probably survive longer than me.
puddles you can buy a hybrid escalade! gas is cheaper than when i bought my car in 2004. if everyone wasn't worried about being laid off or having been already laid off, the suvs would be flying off the lot again. this is the perfect storm that has wrecked the big three not bad management. before the speculators drove the price of oil up gm stock was 42 bucks a share, now its about 2. take a look toyotoa honda and nissan all produce gas guzzlers as well. land cruisers, titans, ridgelines etc...personally i am waiting for that car commercial where the hubby surprises his wife with a new luxury car for christmas. you know the one that has a red ribbon on it in the driveway. gag.
maybe matt and meridith dont want this to happen
Ryanj,
Yes Gainesville Fl.
Although i do like many parts of Texas, particularly Hill Country.
(I am not sure where Gainesvile, TX is in relation to the parts of Texas i like)..
SH???
Thanks, WonderK.
Hi all.
I'm been mighty pissy for the past few days. I'll come back when I'm nice.
vado that ad is already out there. saw it last night. two porsches in the driveway...priceless.
fuck the hybrid...i want an engine that causes pollution, lots of pollution & environmental degradation. maybe i should look for an antique instead.
and forget about using the drive-throu at mcdonald's. i'm going to go inside to get by food and make my driver sit in the parking lot with the engine running the whole time.
i'm sure you could get an awesome deal on almost any car right now.
Philarct, when I hear "2012" and "don't want to happen" in the same sentence I immediately think of Sarah Palin. Cool preview. But I wonder if Google is getting a cut of the ad campaign?
Engine running story: in 1997 or thereabouts Oprah Winfrey went to an auction of Shaker items in Kentucky. She loves the simplicity of the Shaker style, you see. While she bid on and won several items, including IIRC a Shaker box for about $10,000 her driver sat in her limo in the parking lot with the engine running.
Ah yes, a simpler time.
nam, gainesville texas is north of dallas, almost to oklahoma.
in light of the green talk, you LEEDers may have seen this, but the [url=http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=148
]LEED for Neighborhood Development[/url] is now open for public comment
you get the idea
LEED for Neighborhood Development is now open for public comment
Morning, afternoon? I dont know how stay at home moms do it. I think I could handle stay at home wife, maybe even stay at home mom of a 6 year old, but not an infant. Theres too much stuff to do, and if Abe can see me, he wants me. So I'm currently crouched behind the couch hoping that he goes to sleep soon.
A thread on the exciting times of unemployment, huh? There isn't much to tell.
Crap, I had a phone call, and He heard me. Shhhhh.
This blows.
Oooh thanks Philarct, I love a good disaster movie. I took the bait - searching for 2012 yields lots and lots of info about the Mayan calendar and the predictions of the world ending on December 21, 2012. It's a very interesting subject for those of you who haven't heard much of it, I encourage the Google search.
liberty bell, your banker should be scared ... they should all be scared! Good for you for turning into Bond ...Liberty Bond.
Chin up Sarah ... it will get better.
I haven't been here in a while, so hi TC! Stiil reading the last 40 pages.
i'm gonna drive my gas guzzler all the way to alaska and grab sarah palin and bring her back to the lower 48 so we can start campaigning for 2012!
get the guns kids...we're headed on a road trip!!!
puddles - while you're add it I think you should burn a few tires as well.
I've been working on stair elevations all morning and I still can't get them right. Will it ever get easier to draw them?
Hi Dapper Napper!!!!
Hmmm 2012 Doomsday?!? Interesting indeed.
Hi Dapper Napper! Thanks for your comment on my blog, good luck with those last 40 pages....
SH,
I am sorry but the image your post gave me was hilarious. Although i can imagine you are indeed tired/frustrated/bored?
Hi Dapper!
I figured it'd be funny. Normally, Abe will sleep on his own IF you stay out of sight, but no, not this week. Apparently, he's changed the plan on me, and must be rocked to sleep. He should send out a memo next time.
Melt, you've complained about them before, but I figured it was a fluke thing. Do people really draw stair elevations? I haven't drawn through a stair since school. All of the ones we did at work were just in plan, and it was basically "Heres a stair, do your thing Contractor."
Am I totally screwed for finding a job?
Sarah, keep in mind this is what kids do: As soon as you get used to one thing, they start doing something else. No memos - kids are of the "ask for forgiveness not permission" attitude.
I'm about to sign a contract for a public job for the City. Which means we need E&O insurance and all that crap we've avoided by staying in the residential business. The fee isn't all that great either, and the potential for problems is enormous. I'm not sure I want this job, but I'm excited about the cute little design we did. I'll go ahead and give you guys a glimpse of what it is:
I mean, it's nothing ground-breaking, but it's cute. It's an object I'd like to see in the world. The question is: does my desire to see it outweigh the total PITA I know it will be getting it here?
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