alka-seltzer cures hangovers. trust me.

i was sick on weds. felt crappy on thurs. got better on friday. had more fun than i probably should've friday night. woke up worse... this morning ugh...

and myriam, thanks for the rant. it made me happy :) i think angry intelligent women are sexy.

now... back to exploding/imploding (LB prefers the latter) isometrics... keeping up with thread central is a job in itself.

the real issue with BBQ is what side of the fence do you sit on? the wet bbq side or dry? i myself prefer my BBQ slathered in sauce and tender from the get go.

vaya con dios.freddy

to get back to the happy place ('nough moaning)...

the weather was GREAT today- a good as a fall day can be- warm, sunny, breezy....

made some beer/cheese bread to day- yumn! it's almost as good to eat beer as to drink it! so thhhhp! to all those hangovers- gotta learn your limits or you'll never make it to drinking when your old.

yes, beautiful Sunday in north Florida too...
Fall is finally here - cooler weather, less humidity.

our super-vegetarian neighbors invited us over for a cookout this evening...Carrot dogs (the main dish), mashed cauliflower, vegan chili, vegan peanut butter cookies, boca burgers...our contribution? the only deliberately vegan dish that we know: tahini-miso-ginger dressing on sweet potato-red cabbage-carrot slaw with sliced almonds and raisins, all wrapped in a leaf of lettuce. I overheard someone saying that red cabbage gives you gas...well, i guess we'll see...

beer is vegan!

there are vegans in florida?????

oh ya, tons of 'em. surprised?

I'll be spending my entire morning at work trying to find some Tigers tickets! Now that's time well spent. I wonder how to put that on my timesheet?

'professional development' or 'material/product research' or 'client entertainment'

Too bad ticketmaster.com took a crap on me today. Looks like I'll be paying tripple face value on ebay if I want to see my Tigers win the world championship.

hey, myspace finally let me add AP and Chili Davis to my 'friends' list. You guys will be treated to a blog post of photos from my last completely random packaging project this evening. = )

Chili Davis: I had a dream about you [for some reason] on Sunday night. We were having a chat walking along a road. It was basically all about the mountain bike you were walking with, which was really cool. It was called a Chili Davis and had an aluminium frame in battleship grey with red graphics, suspension, gadgets etc [dont know much about bikes]. No funny business - we were just talking. Odd.

Just getting caught up from this weekend:

Strawbeary--don't just cut her out of the project, as I'm afraid that might end up making you look like a poor delegator. I agree with giving her some shitty tedious thing that she can contentedly wrap her tedious mind around--and in the meanwhile make absolutely sure you are documenting her poor group working habits with your superiors. They need to be alerted right away because if this girl is not a good hire or fit for the office, it is their responsibility to make sure everyone works well together and a good efficiency. They need to watch their bottom line and that includes HR--and telling them about problems like this makes their job easier. They can then keep an eye on her along with you and if anything further comes up they can take care of it, out of your hands.

Questioning/arguing with/picking fights with your superiors is an obstruction to workflow and is a serious problem in the workplace. Don't shrug this one off, this girl sounds like a liability to your firm.

Also, rationalist--Chicago is awesome, go for it! The Art Institute is too rad--I've probably posted on here before about how it's like pretty much my favorite american art museum. If not, well, there, I just did. Good luck w/ grad apps!

the ghiberti doors will be at the art institute next year...

also, damn, missed my chance to look all cool plugging matt pond pa, too! i know them well. one of their songs is a fave of mine but i have been disappointed with other work unfortunately. i would def. like to see them in concert though. glad you liked them, mr. ward.

I don't really call the shots for delegating anyways, that is still the PM's call. She does what he says. He has her working on exterior elevations and I get everything else. Plus it's not a heirarchy based team structure and that is one of the reasons I am here - in a sense we are all equal and respected.
Really, I've painted a bad picture, but she's neither a horrible person nor a liability to the company. Everyone likes her, and we are friends, even hanging out after work sometimes. She does very well for her lack of experience, is pretty smart, and can usually think thru a problem pretty well. This, in turn, may be what is going to her head, that no one ever challenges her, they let her do whatever she wants.

So my strategy, I will give her "the look" when she's getting obnoxious and hope she takes the hint. If I ever have another conversation on the caliber of above I will take wonderk's words and ferociously whisper, "you are such a TWAT!"

Perhaps she sees me as the easiest to challenge I guess....

Well I'm not sure that this will help but I usually use humor to deal with people who I find to be difficult. Unless they are truly horrible people in which case I steer clear.

I dunno, she still sounds like a horrible employee to me. I guess just avoid her at all costs!

Also, guys, the cookies came out beautifully, and I met the parents and all went well. Man-friend's little niece (2 yrs old) took one look at me and started calling me "Cinderella!" all day, so that made an auspicious start... I guess I'll wait till she's older to inform her that Cinderella is actually blond.

too bad you don't sit beside me at work. i am really nice and friendly and don't stare too much...

when I went to disneyworld, cinderella was a very obviously redhead irish girl who'd dyed her hair brunette.


sumthin just ain't right about that.

Good morning from St. Louis.....

Anyone have any suggestions/helpful hints on how to start writing a personal statement/statement of intent for my grad school apps? I'm just stumped. I have an outline but have no idea how to begin this one-page paper. I used to be a pretty good writer but I haven't written anything of any substance in ages, except for the GRE, which sucked.

Not trying to turn this into grad school central, just, you know, continuing the conversation.....

i had a hella time doing that too, wk. i am pretty sure i got in to grad school based on my professional work and not on the statement of intent, which very probably sucked hind teat.

in retrospect i think i would begin with a question...the one i hoped to answer by goin back to school. You know, "where is the border between building and bacon?" kinda thing... but intelligent. and followed up with an intelligent follow up...am sure you got that part covered.

that is more or less how i wrote my proposals for phd, when contacting profs to see if they would take me in. probably better ways to do it, but at least they knew right away why i was writing to them. and i got into ivy-type japanese school with full ride...so can't have been all crap, as approaches go.

whatever you do, am sure it will come out golden. luck!

well its cold and rainy and i feel like crap. am downing coffee and wishin i had some dayquil. i need a suit made out of heating pads. other than that things are great...

mmm...suit of heating pads. although i see a sort of martin
lawrence-like passing out due to overheating if they were all
on high. some of the best days at work have been sponsored
by dayquil. everyone's so much easier to get along with when
you're high on cough syrup.

Wk-

architecture personal statements 101:

'As a kid, I played with_________ and became interested in architecture'

'I visited ___________, and fell in love with the power of architecture'

'my______ was an architect, and I used to play with their mayline as a kid, so I was destined to become an architect'

'i built a ___________ and now I want to build bigger things'

'Architeture is cool, I am cool, your school is cool'

'I'm the first person in my family to go to college, SO LET ME INTO YOUR GRAD PROGRAM' (emphasis optional)

'I like _________ & ______ __________. And I make a mean creme brulle, so I'd be a great architect.'

'I have a green thumb (and know how to roll a dope joint), so I'd make a great landscape architect'

'I like big toys, dozers, cranes, and mike mulligans steam shovel- architecture would let me play with these things.'

'I wanted to be an artist, but my parents told me to major in something that paid real money, so I choose architecture.'

'I dropped out of medical school to become an architect because the liability and insurance is cheaper.'


and so on, so take it away WonderK!!!!!

diabase - I do have a pretty sweet bike. It's a sledgehammer. It's got shocks, pegs... I take it off some sweet jumps too. Also, I'm not sure how I feel about people I don't know having dreams about me, but what the hell! Maybe sometime soon I'll post some pics of my real bike to further blure the lines between reality and subconciousness.

Also, I am a verry bad speler.

treekiller, I think you just got my 'artists statement' off the ground too.... "I wanted to be an artist, but my parents told me to major in something that paid real money, so I choose architecture. Turns out that I spent all day arguing with landscapers and plumbing engineers, and STILL didn't make money. So let me come to art school, pretty please? And oh, I'll be needing an assistanceship, since I'm not making money."

oh, and good luck WonderK. Although, if you've got an outline already, you're golden. Where are you on the portfolio process? I'm headed up to San Fran this weekend to go to a grad portfolio day and visit California College of the Arts, so I've been working on portfolio like mad and neglecting the personal statements.

ohhhh... CCAC.... I dream of going there. Tell us how it is, rationalist.

really? I think the program itself looks really, really good, but I'd like to move further away.

I don't know anything about their graphics program--I'm just fascinated by the campus(es) and the orgy of all the different arts and crafts that I love all under one roof and being able to pursue all my little fantasies like jewelry-making... also a large part of it is probably the fact that I miss CA and want to move back to the bay area in a few years. :)

Have you lived in CA all your life? I can tell you one thing, nothing will ever make me regret the decision to move across the country and try out life in other, very very far away states and countries while I still could, and while it's still easy for me to move. I have learned so much just from forcing myself to go far away from everything I knew. If you feel like you need distance, it's probably a good gut instinct.

What other schools are you looking at? Btw, you mentioned RISD once--now that's another school I love. Kinda wish I did undergrad there after touring their arch studios--saw some pretty conceptual and artistic stuff. (And not a lot of computer generated stuff.) Also, Providence is really cute and fun. But Chicago... well, I'm moving there, so clearly it's a good town!

if you want cold miserable weather for 5 months of the year, AND an orgy of art/creativity, then cranbrook may be the school for you!

ewwww, michigan. Besides, they don't have the program I want. I checked already because of their stellar reputation.

myriam- grew up in Phx, moved to LA for school and never left. Now it seems like the AZ>CA move wasn't big enough. Applying to: CCA (san Fran), UW (seattle), Pratt (NY), SAIC (Chicago), RIT (rochester, NY, brrrrrr), SCAD (savannah, GA), and MICA (Baltimore). I'm not even bothering with Art Center, Otis, or CIA because I want out of LA. I dropped RISD because they would want me to go into the three year program, and 8 years of school is just too much. I already know I'll get a 3-5k a year scholarship from SCAD just for acing the writing portion of the GRE (perfect 6, baby!), so I'm hoping one of these schools tosses an assistanceship or fellowship at me, and that will make them the winner.

Oh, SCAD, another one that seriously attracts me! I have some friends who went through MICA and liked it--sounds like a great school--but personally I don't care at all for Baltimore. I know it's got that "it's so crappy it rules" mentality, but frankly, it's so crappy I would have been one of the thousands who left. And I lived in (and loved) PITTSBURGH. But anyway you should visit and check it out, you might love it. But I'd definitely try to visit that one, just in case... Rochester too, another town that only a mother could love.

Man, you have so much excitement ahead of you!!!!! Thrilling!!!

I'm waiting until I see who accepts me, and under what ($$$) terms, and then I'll do visits. For now I'm just visiting CCA because I'll already be in San Fran for the portfolio day, and they were smart and scheduled their grad day for the day after that.

Michiganistan... The Capital of the New World!

Savannah is cool, and SCAD owns half of the bldgs in the city...the city is their campus, which is pretty neat...plus, considering your list, it's about as far away from home as you can get (maybe RIT is further?)...

yeah, RIT, and Pratt are def. further. Even Seattle would be cool. But I do like both SCAD and RIT because they're on quarter systems, so I would get to take about twice as many classes as at other schools. More opportunity to learn different things, take all those crazy electives, even minor in something (printmaking or letterpress probably). I'd never heard of grad school minors, but RIT does it. So those are definitely on the lower end of the prestige ladder, but the curriculums get me excited anyway.

Sorry to all you non-grad-interested-peeps. I'll try to stop obsessing now. Did anyone see the Bears/Cardinals game last night? I think Dennis Green should be fired for that playcalling. Let's get Jeff Fisher (and hopefully Norm Chow with him!) to Phoenix. Matt Leinart played AWESOMELY last night, and was getting no help from the playcalling strategy.

I'm just psyched because now the SAINTS have the best record in the NFL! HA!

*well, tied, but STILL...

Also, sorry rationalista, but matt leinart is such a prick, i don't really care to see him do well. Ugh that guy bugs the shit out of me. I'm not really a fan of USC football. In fact i really don't like them. I have to keep telilng myself that reggie bush has redeemed himself by a move to the saints. sorry!

A prick? Can I ask what that idea is based on? When he was at SC, he had a rep for being a bit of a playboy, but not actually a bad guy as long as you weren't trying to be in a relationship with him.

And I thought the Saints dropped a game early on.... they lead their division, but aren't the Bears undefeated? Not a bears fan, just trying to get my facts straight.

oh SHIT the bears won! How the hell did they pull that off in the last quarter??? I missed that, I was asleep already. I figured it was a done deal for Arizona. ha!

Someone should photoshop a cardinal into candy's mouth in that pic.

Indianapolis 5 0
New Orleans 5 1
Denver 4 1
New England 4 1
San Diego 4 1
Seattle 4 1

you're right, the bears won. I thought they lost last night. Bears are 6-0, Saints second (not tied) with 5-1.

I dislike him because he's a playboy egotist who hangs out with celebrities instead of working hard. Ha ha. I'm not a fan of the friends of the rich, I guess. It's the socialist in me rearing it's ugly head. And I have a thing against USC football because y'all keep saying you won the championship in 2003 and LSU did, and it annoys me that everyone (even sportscasters) gets that wrong. I don't like it when anyone claims they won something they didn't, no matter who it is. That's all, rant over. (Also I don't really care about football, so take it with a grain of salt. I think you went to a fine school, of course!)

Detroit 1 5

W/L

everyone else has lost at least twice. Oakland is 0-5!