I feel absolutely terrible. I just had to tell a potential vendor that my client decided to go with a competitor b/c the other guy's proposal was lower. What's even worse is that I'm going to have to do it again shortly as I got three bids. Merry F*&%ing Christmas. :o(
hi LiG!
Blago did know he was being tapped -- he's made statements like "Go ahead and listen to my phones, I have nothing to hide!" literally!! The sheer hubris of that man is astounding. And I hate his idiotic, ill-designed flagship self-memorializing project -- the Illinois tollway road design. Ugh, what a clusterfuck those are.
He's amazing.
For those of you who aren't familiar with our fair governor in the state of Illinois, a good indicator of what he's like is that when he was elected, he refused to move his family from Chicago downstate to Springfield (the capitol), about 3.5 hours away. Instead, he decided to fly there on a private jet for business days, meetings, etcetera, at the taxpayers' expense. When the media snooped it out and everyone got outraged, he refused to stop doing this, and to my knowledge still flies to work everyday.
What did Blago do with the tollways? I remember the service areas being rebuilt with a new design, but I'm pretty sure that began under the previous governor (who, incidentally, is also in federal prison for corruption).
I laughed when I heard about the governor. Sounded like a funny plan to me, and it makes me wonder how often that actually does happen. Politics being a bit of a good'ole boy network, I bet it happens often enough.
No stores had black sweaters or button up shirts for babies. Maybe I should start a line. So I got a grey sweater. THink it will look ok? Baby in grey, Mom in red, Dad in black? Nope, I'm not nervous about this at all.
Oh, and I'm a terrible mom. I knew enough about todays weather to start Abe off in a light jacket and tobogan (high 50s with a cool wind) and carried his heavy 'stay-puff' coat with us to be prepaired for the impending cold front. But, I forgot a blanket to tuck him in snugly in the stroller for the outdoor mall we went to, and I forgot mittens to keep his hands warm, and probably a space heater, and sheet plastic. Luckily, only one woman commented, and it was more of a relieved and helpful "here let me take the buggy, you put that baby in the car" and "thank goodness he has a hat on." I tried to tell Abe that if he didn't leave his hat on, that someone would call CPS and he wouldnt have a mother anymore.
I'm sure I wrote a post - but I have no idea where it went. I guess those things happen. I'm all dressed and ready to go to this opening. I was too busy to ask for a quite visit before the people went in, but I guess seeing the space inhabited first can also have its advantages. I've broken the box of cubans, and will be taking one with me - we'll see what state I'm in later.
Sarah, most likely the other moms were all thinking to themselves "Gosh I remember the time I underdressed my kid to go out - that poor woman feels just as embarrassed as I did - doesn't realize that we've ALL been there..." Don't beat yourself up.
melt, sadly that scenario - telling the higher bidder they didn't get the job - is part of the business. I think it's important to go ahead and feel how badly you do feel about telling people they didn't get it. They will detect the honesty and sympathy in your voice and it helps, really. I just read an article on laying people off that said it's too easy, as the lay off-er, to become non-emotional, but that just makes it harder for the lay off-ee, because they feel like a cog being treated impersonally.
To extend this much further than I need to, when I worked in a restaurant I had to be the one to tell men they weren't allowed in if they were wearing a tank top (that was our only dress code requirement, no men's pits). I always said I was sorry and one day the bartender said to me "The thing is, you actually *do* sound sorry, so no one ever gets mad at you about being asked to leave!" When he did it, usually brusquely, it led to altercations.
SPeaking of dress codes techno wish I could see you all dressed up and Cuban in hand - have a blast tonight!
Thanks LB - I know, it just sucks right now having to tell people they didn't get the bid b/c in the back of mind there's this little voice saying to me this might be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
SH - Awwww don't feel so bad. I'll never forget the time about three years ago when my BFF and I took her son to an outdoor gallery hop dead smack in the middle of winter. Not only did she forget to bring a hat for him (he never wears one anyway), but he proceeded to take NOT just his shoes off, but his socks off as well. She just sat there in utter incomprehensible disbelieve, totally appalled by the actions of her child, trying feverishly to put them all back on. I wasn't much help or support as I was laughing my ass off the whole time saying something like "Let him take them off, in a few seconds time he'll be begging you to put them back on". Needless to say, in 30 seconds flat he was whining to his mom to help him put on his shoes and socks.
"The best way to make money as an architect in this economy is to use your plotter to run off $100 bills. (And it's worth it to spend a little up front on the paper. Get the good stuff. Cheap bond won't cut it.)"
Liberty this is the second time this week you've had me blushing. Oddly, and I only realised on my way home was that with the Cuban I had a Banana Republic shirt on - odd. The lounge was fun, met up with another architect and spoke shop the whole night - perfect!
Barry I'm so thick, I didn't realise that was your book. Wow! I will have to buy a copy, BUT I need mine autographed please
my prof had an entire issue of JA devoted to him last year (my name is in back along with 20 others) and i forgot to get him to sign it, then gave it away, and now they are out of stock and can't be purchased anymore....
the moral being, get the autographed copy quick, and then don't give it away, no matter how much your old professor begs you for it!
hm, i think i am mildly drunk....but i haven't been drinking. amazing how fatigue can mess with a body's mind.
waaaay too much on my plate right now. christmas is going to be so nice. no work for 2 weeks, holiday hours enforced by wife who will kill me if i don't. wish i could just jump over the next 2 weeks really ;-)
congrats, treekiller. it is a great cover. would someone like me be able to read and understand what's inside?!
sarah, i read an article this year by a pediatrician that suggested that we bundle our kids up too much, that we're often projecting how cold WE feel onto them when, in fact, their metabolisms are running so much faster that they can be OVER-bundled and overheat.
so, really, you're probably just one-up on those other moms.
Regarding Barry's book. I got a sneak preview of his chapter in it and mst say i (a non-architect) found it not only interesting but understandable. Particularly liked some of the images that went with it. I always meant to ask if those were taken by you Barry?
Emily, from what i know it is available on Amazon.
Archi,
I wish i was chilling on the island smoking a Cuban with you. Maybe sometime down the road.
Hi Jump!
I was like that this weekend. Got together with friends and stayed up way too late catching up and then had to work most of Sat..
Vado, I meant to tell you yesterday I found your comment funny about barkeepers friend. I kept forgeting to post that, sorry.
And guess what....It sleeted like crazy last night, and its actually still on the rooftops and some of the dirt spots on the ground. Looks like snow, and as much as I hate snow, I dont mind it on rooftops, or otherplaces where I dont have to touch it. And strangly, I actually wish I could take Abe outdoors to touch it, but then my senses come back and I remember that 28 degrees is effing cold, and its windy. No thank you.
the book will be shortly available on amazon et al.
My photos are those accompanying the essay of Owens Lake. I've been known to shoot a sweet picture of two in my day. I even have photos in the collection of the architectural archive at UPenn and the Kent-Lucas Foundation (they have a small museum in Delaware).
took the ski matic design portion of the a.r.e. today. i blago'd dat biotch!!! even though i cut my finger at the gas station on the way in and was bleedin like a mofo. then i had a couple of stellas.
beta what a good citizen you are! I would cash the check and take the unemployment and buy yourself something pretty.
I had a long day, spent much of the morning sorting out drawings I was printing in the afternoon. A friend joined me for the wait, we shared a sandwich/cookie/brownie and a latte each. I didn't cut my finger.
Could this day possibly move any slower? My days move so much more quickly when I'm blogging, doing school work, surfing Archinect, etc. Working at my job for actual income is not a good way to pass time.
So can we use "blago" as a verb, then? Definition: to be really douchey? Actually I'm thinking of something even more vulgar...
sarah your snow aversion is interesting. when you say 28 you mean farenheit right? which is like just a bit below freezing, or what we would call warm spring weather where i grew up. me, i LOVE the cold. must be the canadian blood, but no joke i miss it - it never freezes here and the snow is so wet an umbrella is required if you go out.
i don't think i even owned an umbrella back in canada...
It got up to 65 here in NYC today, but a friend of mine in San Antonio had snow on the ground... Go figure.
Okay, I like the glasses I posted on the last page, but I can't seem to find anywhere in NYC that carries those specific frames without doing a special order. I could order them online, but I'd rather not spend any money without having seen them in the flesh and trying them on first. I suppose I could return them if I don't like them, but that's a big hassle. Do opticians usually require you to pre-pay if they special order something for you?
Had a great afternoon and evening critiquing with Steven and some others (puddles, a friend of yours...) for some Ball State students, then an evening of wine and dreaming of making a better future through grassroots action and design. All the more exciting since it took place in a mid-century modern house: it felt like the appropriate setting for pondering potentials.
I'm more than a little tipsy, and apropos of that, I love all you guys.
Yeah, jump, I just hate how snow makes everything wet. I hated my pants beings wet up to the knees, with the nice salt-ring stain. THe only things that should have a salt ring, are drinks. All that said, I am willing to put my feelings aside when Abram gets older so that we can take him to see snow. We have a friend who has a house in boulder or somewhere, maybe we could borrow it.
LB, did you go to Ball State? My mentor went to Ball state, and though I don't know your age, I feel like y'all might be close. He's in his mid thirtys, I think. Nice guy.
Husband has another party tonight. Maybe he can do some networking for me; get me a job.
Sarah, key to snow is the right gear: boots, snow pants, gaiters, balaclava, etc. And gloves with a little cotton patch on the thumb so you have an absorptive patch to wipe your nose.
And nope I didn't go to BSU, just live near it now. Also I'm an old lady of 41, so mid-thirties is still young. But if your mentor is still in the Indiana area I might know him, we have a very small architecture community here.
Partner just called and asked me to go over to the un-heated under construction house and wait for the plumbing delivery truck. Crap. Better get on my boots, snow pants, gaiters...
my ideal winter temperature is about - 24 celcius (about -10 F). very blago that is.
funny about that job hunting thing. i was offered a job with three different places last (this) year. i may regret not following through on any of them.
in possibly good news column our presentation to client (for which i attended late night meeting discussed above) went swimmingly...except we still don't know if we get the job or not. the client likes it, loves it even, but there is still a holdout somewhere in the system. looks like we will find out next year.
yet another frustrating piece of reality in our small tokyo office. lately we are busy as hell, but so much of what we are up to is long (ish) term, so we are not sure if we can afford to hire someone to help even though we need it desperately...playing it safe we decided not to, but now have to decide which projects to spend time on and which to let go for lack of man-power...which is very annoying, and even painful. if times were better we would be willing to chance it, but now we can't say for sure what happens next...and that feels wrong. i feel a bit like we have joined into beginning of self-fulfilling prophecy for economy here in japan, and that just sucks.
its that wait and see Jump that has the world's economy in a tizzy. No one is sure how bad is bad, so they all wait and see. Sarah ignore Liberty's comment about being an old lady, she surely doesn't look 41
In more important news I'm going to go my suit trousers fitted. The fun part of buying an off the shelf suit (of the over 10 suits I've had in my life, only the last two were store bought versus tailored). Anyway proof that tailors will always be needed.
jump, could you not hire someone as a temporary helper, with a clear acknowledgment that this is a temporary position? I don't know if that's standard practice in Japan.
techno, I was part of a long conversation last night about men's tailoring and custom suits and exactly how much cuff should be exposed, proper tie length etc. I like men's fashion when it's very well done. Quality - custom tailoring - will never disappear, you're right.
Thread Central
You know I'm a nerd when this makes me LOL. :o)
Whoops! Sorry. New page!
This was apparently a record-setting hit for Ichiro Suzuki. #258. I've gone meta.
sweet!...we have a holiday tree now & it smells wonderful
I feel absolutely terrible. I just had to tell a potential vendor that my client decided to go with a competitor b/c the other guy's proposal was lower. What's even worse is that I'm going to have to do it again shortly as I got three bids. Merry F*&%ing Christmas. :o(
hi LiG!
Blago did know he was being tapped -- he's made statements like "Go ahead and listen to my phones, I have nothing to hide!" literally!! The sheer hubris of that man is astounding. And I hate his idiotic, ill-designed flagship self-memorializing project -- the Illinois tollway road design. Ugh, what a clusterfuck those are.
He's amazing.
For those of you who aren't familiar with our fair governor in the state of Illinois, a good indicator of what he's like is that when he was elected, he refused to move his family from Chicago downstate to Springfield (the capitol), about 3.5 hours away. Instead, he decided to fly there on a private jet for business days, meetings, etcetera, at the taxpayers' expense. When the media snooped it out and everyone got outraged, he refused to stop doing this, and to my knowledge still flies to work everyday.
i love the internet...how else would we be informed about this unique">http://www.holytaco.com/you-dont-get-kind-email-everyday]unique luau opportunity?
shit i'm retarded sometimes...
i love the internet...how else would we be informed about this unique luau opportunity?
What did Blago do with the tollways? I remember the service areas being rebuilt with a new design, but I'm pretty sure that began under the previous governor (who, incidentally, is also in federal prison for corruption).
"Blago" sounds like the name of a really lame vampire.
LOL Dubk!!
I am about to make a holiday bundt cake. First time.
Good luck LB.
I laughed when I heard about the governor. Sounded like a funny plan to me, and it makes me wonder how often that actually does happen. Politics being a bit of a good'ole boy network, I bet it happens often enough.
No stores had black sweaters or button up shirts for babies. Maybe I should start a line. So I got a grey sweater. THink it will look ok? Baby in grey, Mom in red, Dad in black? Nope, I'm not nervous about this at all.
Oh, and I'm a terrible mom. I knew enough about todays weather to start Abe off in a light jacket and tobogan (high 50s with a cool wind) and carried his heavy 'stay-puff' coat with us to be prepaired for the impending cold front. But, I forgot a blanket to tuck him in snugly in the stroller for the outdoor mall we went to, and I forgot mittens to keep his hands warm, and probably a space heater, and sheet plastic. Luckily, only one woman commented, and it was more of a relieved and helpful "here let me take the buggy, you put that baby in the car" and "thank goodness he has a hat on." I tried to tell Abe that if he didn't leave his hat on, that someone would call CPS and he wouldnt have a mother anymore.
Blago sounds like some crazy new board game to me.
my copies arrived today!!!
uh oh i got BLAGO'D :(
I'm sure I wrote a post - but I have no idea where it went. I guess those things happen. I'm all dressed and ready to go to this opening. I was too busy to ask for a quite visit before the people went in, but I guess seeing the space inhabited first can also have its advantages. I've broken the box of cubans, and will be taking one with me - we'll see what state I'm in later.
Everyone enjoy your night.
congratulations barry!
Congrats, Barry, I LOVE the cover image!
Sarah, most likely the other moms were all thinking to themselves "Gosh I remember the time I underdressed my kid to go out - that poor woman feels just as embarrassed as I did - doesn't realize that we've ALL been there..." Don't beat yourself up.
melt, sadly that scenario - telling the higher bidder they didn't get the job - is part of the business. I think it's important to go ahead and feel how badly you do feel about telling people they didn't get it. They will detect the honesty and sympathy in your voice and it helps, really. I just read an article on laying people off that said it's too easy, as the lay off-er, to become non-emotional, but that just makes it harder for the lay off-ee, because they feel like a cog being treated impersonally.
To extend this much further than I need to, when I worked in a restaurant I had to be the one to tell men they weren't allowed in if they were wearing a tank top (that was our only dress code requirement, no men's pits). I always said I was sorry and one day the bartender said to me "The thing is, you actually *do* sound sorry, so no one ever gets mad at you about being asked to leave!" When he did it, usually brusquely, it led to altercations.
SPeaking of dress codes techno wish I could see you all dressed up and Cuban in hand - have a blast tonight!
Go Barry! Go Barry! Go! Go! Go Barry!!!!!
Many congrats on being published.
Thanks LB - I know, it just sucks right now having to tell people they didn't get the bid b/c in the back of mind there's this little voice saying to me this might be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
SH - Awwww don't feel so bad. I'll never forget the time about three years ago when my BFF and I took her son to an outdoor gallery hop dead smack in the middle of winter. Not only did she forget to bring a hat for him (he never wears one anyway), but he proceeded to take NOT just his shoes off, but his socks off as well. She just sat there in utter incomprehensible disbelieve, totally appalled by the actions of her child, trying feverishly to put them all back on. I wasn't much help or support as I was laughing my ass off the whole time saying something like "Let him take them off, in a few seconds time he'll be begging you to put them back on". Needless to say, in 30 seconds flat he was whining to his mom to help him put on his shoes and socks.
Congratulations Barry! Can we find it on Amazon?
way to go barry. have you thought about changin your name to barack?
I know this story about architecture as a growth industry is old news but the comments in this Curbed post are priceless, including this gem:
"The best way to make money as an architect in this economy is to use your plotter to run off $100 bills. (And it's worth it to spend a little up front on the paper. Get the good stuff. Cheap bond won't cut it.)"
Yes.
who would know an admiral's son would sing this?
Liberty this is the second time this week you've had me blushing. Oddly, and I only realised on my way home was that with the Cuban I had a Banana Republic shirt on - odd. The lounge was fun, met up with another architect and spoke shop the whole night - perfect!
Barry I'm so thick, I didn't realise that was your book. Wow! I will have to buy a copy, BUT I need mine autographed please
super coolio mr. lehrman !
my prof had an entire issue of JA devoted to him last year (my name is in back along with 20 others) and i forgot to get him to sign it, then gave it away, and now they are out of stock and can't be purchased anymore....
the moral being, get the autographed copy quick, and then don't give it away, no matter how much your old professor begs you for it!
hm, i think i am mildly drunk....but i haven't been drinking. amazing how fatigue can mess with a body's mind.
waaaay too much on my plate right now. christmas is going to be so nice. no work for 2 weeks, holiday hours enforced by wife who will kill me if i don't. wish i could just jump over the next 2 weeks really ;-)
congrats, treekiller. it is a great cover. would someone like me be able to read and understand what's inside?!
sarah, i read an article this year by a pediatrician that suggested that we bundle our kids up too much, that we're often projecting how cold WE feel onto them when, in fact, their metabolisms are running so much faster that they can be OVER-bundled and overheat.
so, really, you're probably just one-up on those other moms.
Morning all,
Regarding Barry's book. I got a sneak preview of his chapter in it and mst say i (a non-architect) found it not only interesting but understandable. Particularly liked some of the images that went with it. I always meant to ask if those were taken by you Barry?
Emily, from what i know it is available on Amazon.
Archi,
I wish i was chilling on the island smoking a Cuban with you. Maybe sometime down the road.
Hi Jump!
I was like that this weekend. Got together with friends and stayed up way too late catching up and then had to work most of Sat..
Vado, I meant to tell you yesterday I found your comment funny about barkeepers friend. I kept forgeting to post that, sorry.
And guess what....It sleeted like crazy last night, and its actually still on the rooftops and some of the dirt spots on the ground. Looks like snow, and as much as I hate snow, I dont mind it on rooftops, or otherplaces where I dont have to touch it. And strangly, I actually wish I could take Abe outdoors to touch it, but then my senses come back and I remember that 28 degrees is effing cold, and its windy. No thank you.
Weird, it smells like cheesesteaks outside.
weird, it smells like gin inside here...what happened to the rum?
the book will be shortly available on amazon et al.
My photos are those accompanying the essay of Owens Lake. I've been known to shoot a sweet picture of two in my day. I even have photos in the collection of the architectural archive at UPenn and the Kent-Lucas Foundation (they have a small museum in Delaware).
Tree,
Awesome.
I figured you took the photos..
took the ski matic design portion of the a.r.e. today. i blago'd dat biotch!!! even though i cut my finger at the gas station on the way in and was bleedin like a mofo. then i had a couple of stellas.
barry, congrats on the book, dude!
oh, check this, the firm that laid me off last month, sent me a bonus check. what? they want a thank you? ha.
now i have to report that as income to the state, and not get unemployment this week.
beta what a good citizen you are! I would cash the check and take the unemployment and buy yourself something pretty.
I had a long day, spent much of the morning sorting out drawings I was printing in the afternoon. A friend joined me for the wait, we shared a sandwich/cookie/brownie and a latte each. I didn't cut my finger.
Could this day possibly move any slower? My days move so much more quickly when I'm blogging, doing school work, surfing Archinect, etc. Working at my job for actual income is not a good way to pass time.
So can we use "blago" as a verb, then? Definition: to be really douchey? Actually I'm thinking of something even more vulgar...
sarah your snow aversion is interesting. when you say 28 you mean farenheit right? which is like just a bit below freezing, or what we would call warm spring weather where i grew up. me, i LOVE the cold. must be the canadian blood, but no joke i miss it - it never freezes here and the snow is so wet an umbrella is required if you go out.
i don't think i even owned an umbrella back in canada...
It got up to 65 here in NYC today, but a friend of mine in San Antonio had snow on the ground... Go figure.
Okay, I like the glasses I posted on the last page, but I can't seem to find anywhere in NYC that carries those specific frames without doing a special order. I could order them online, but I'd rather not spend any money without having seen them in the flesh and trying them on first. I suppose I could return them if I don't like them, but that's a big hassle. Do opticians usually require you to pre-pay if they special order something for you?
Had a great afternoon and evening critiquing with Steven and some others (puddles, a friend of yours...) for some Ball State students, then an evening of wine and dreaming of making a better future through grassroots action and design. All the more exciting since it took place in a mid-century modern house: it felt like the appropriate setting for pondering potentials.
I'm more than a little tipsy, and apropos of that, I love all you guys.
Off to find the hammerred thread.
lb you sound blago'd!!!
Yeah, jump, I just hate how snow makes everything wet. I hated my pants beings wet up to the knees, with the nice salt-ring stain. THe only things that should have a salt ring, are drinks. All that said, I am willing to put my feelings aside when Abram gets older so that we can take him to see snow. We have a friend who has a house in boulder or somewhere, maybe we could borrow it.
LB, did you go to Ball State? My mentor went to Ball state, and though I don't know your age, I feel like y'all might be close. He's in his mid thirtys, I think. Nice guy.
Husband has another party tonight. Maybe he can do some networking for me; get me a job.
lb going to ball state??? that's just blago!
Sarah, key to snow is the right gear: boots, snow pants, gaiters, balaclava, etc. And gloves with a little cotton patch on the thumb so you have an absorptive patch to wipe your nose.
And nope I didn't go to BSU, just live near it now. Also I'm an old lady of 41, so mid-thirties is still young. But if your mentor is still in the Indiana area I might know him, we have a very small architecture community here.
Partner just called and asked me to go over to the un-heated under construction house and wait for the plumbing delivery truck. Crap. Better get on my boots, snow pants, gaiters...
my ideal winter temperature is about - 24 celcius (about -10 F). very blago that is.
funny about that job hunting thing. i was offered a job with three different places last (this) year. i may regret not following through on any of them.
in possibly good news column our presentation to client (for which i attended late night meeting discussed above) went swimmingly...except we still don't know if we get the job or not. the client likes it, loves it even, but there is still a holdout somewhere in the system. looks like we will find out next year.
yet another frustrating piece of reality in our small tokyo office. lately we are busy as hell, but so much of what we are up to is long (ish) term, so we are not sure if we can afford to hire someone to help even though we need it desperately...playing it safe we decided not to, but now have to decide which projects to spend time on and which to let go for lack of man-power...which is very annoying, and even painful. if times were better we would be willing to chance it, but now we can't say for sure what happens next...and that feels wrong. i feel a bit like we have joined into beginning of self-fulfilling prophecy for economy here in japan, and that just sucks.
I'm still alive.
its that wait and see Jump that has the world's economy in a tizzy. No one is sure how bad is bad, so they all wait and see. Sarah ignore Liberty's comment about being an old lady, she surely doesn't look 41
In more important news I'm going to go my suit trousers fitted. The fun part of buying an off the shelf suit (of the over 10 suits I've had in my life, only the last two were store bought versus tailored). Anyway proof that tailors will always be needed.
jump, could you not hire someone as a temporary helper, with a clear acknowledgment that this is a temporary position? I don't know if that's standard practice in Japan.
techno, I was part of a long conversation last night about men's tailoring and custom suits and exactly how much cuff should be exposed, proper tie length etc. I like men's fashion when it's very well done. Quality - custom tailoring - will never disappear, you're right.
ahhh the trick question - "how much cuff," you know it depends on the type of shirt. French cuff you can get away with as much as 25mm
in japan they are called tempurary workers. get it tempuraaaah oh never mind...
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