Well that would be an easy costume to make: "I just came in my pants".



Sorry, so sorry.

Ok and so now I am REALLY stressed out about the All! NEW! Girly!! Archinect!!! T-shirts!!!!! Where is the email about them argh.......

thanks for removing the veil on that one lb ;-)...



...plug for a blog entry - put up around 10pmEST, off the front page by 8:30 this morning.

My mom once got a big stick from the woods, stuck the end of it in a muddy hole until it was very covered and crusty (and dry), then went to a party dressed in her normal clothes and carried around the stick saying "I don't do costumes - I'm just an old stick in the mud".

Actually, at the right party, not the one I will be going to as it will have involve a lot of children, I would really enjoy showing up as someone who just came in my pants.

nice one ap...but given my proclivities it would be very suspect if i came in my pants

just come in your pants. dont remind me of that time(s)

Actually AP it was treekiller who lifted the veil - I didn't even get it until he said something! (and I am ashamed that I didn't think of it myself...)

Phew, packing is a bitch!! when will I ever be done? There are so many interesting conversations I'd like to be a part of, alas. On the other hand it is fascinating to pore through my material memories.

wow...that reminds me so much of being 14 years old again. my poor mother...i really should do something nice for her...

I love the fact that the last 10 +/- posts have been about coming in your pants. Notice I said "your" not "my".

mi pantsa su pantsa

i have one of my occasional stupid questions:
when i got my dell desk computer 4years ago, it came with two botton with a wheel mouse. i am a very mouse dependent person and lately when i use the scrool wheel, it makes more ratchet wheel sound than ever and it bugs me. i am not a cheap ass and can certainly afford a new mouse. however, if i can fix it with a little wd40 action, i'd be glad to save the world from another industrial throw away that is functioning.
what shall do? wd40 or trip to best buys?
ps; this mouse is old fashion with a ball in it which i clean every once in a while and don't mind doing it.

orhan,

take it apart & see if you can fix it...i fixed my hoover vacuum this weekend and even though i could afford a new one if i wanted to, it just feels radically cool to actually be able to fix something.

of course, i haven't vacuumed in ages and i still haven't used it since fixing...but at least i did it

thanks puddles. inside the mouse looks more hi tech than i thought. i almost messed it up when wheel pulled out with little springs on the side and one of the springs came lose. lo and behold, i almost pushed in the wrong side ways and broke the plastic parts. after that i was successful but this time spring didn't fit in the 4ight way. offf. at that point i started to think where the old mouse was (i have the old one from 4 years ago).
anyway i put in couple drops of cutting fluid and the ole' mouse works like a muted tv.
thanks again.

the best part is removing the lint/grime with a tweezer in one piece out of the wheels around the ball

huh.
i like to handle that with a blunt side of exacto blade. sort of like scraping action. i do it with care so not to demage the plasticised magnet cylinders. but i see why your method is far more superior because you are able get the whole bugger out (no i am not picking my nose). when i opened the device, i saw a lot of previously lost lint inside, which i always thought i got it out.
i now want to hot rod the mouse.

no problem...the vacuum cleaner was fun too. i should have taken a photograph & posted. basically it was just a broken belt ($5 for a package of two new ones) and lots of cleaning. it's amazing how much dust can clog up the insides of a vacuum. because all the parts were plastic, i washed them out nicely (with soap too!), rinsed and then let air dry for afternoon. now the vacuum works great & i feel great too!

good work orhan

hotrod.

find any bellybutton lint?

reminds me of the time i took out the mouse ball to clean it and dropped it under the desk. of course it rolled away and i was ass-in-the-air for several minutes under the desk looking for it. the mutiny of everyday objects. happens to me often.

best new user name:

perturbanist

(started the maya array thread)

So I got a message from the contractor in my voice mail this morning. He has a set of redlines for me to pick up.

WHAT THE FUCK?

strawbeary,

what phase of the project are you in? is it a hard bid project or construction management?

if its CM and you are nearing the bidding phase, then i would say that getting redlines from the contractor (or a constructability review) is both normal and helpful... they will help clear up any inconsistencies and/or things that are not entirely clear before the subcontractors get the documents for bid, thus hopefully decreasing the amount of fluff that the subs will add to cover things that are not entirely clear... i'm going through this process now as the "owner" (i work for a city).. the CM just submitted their constructability review to the architects earlier this week and i'll be giving them my review/redline set on friday...

of course if its a hard bid job that has already been bid, then i agree... WTF...

Maybe it just means that he doesn't trust the underlings with it, and wants it done quick and clean, no arguements? I know I'm frequently given work where the reasoning basically boils down to, "because I can trust you to do it right".

treekiller's posted some (actually useful despite his smart-alecky-ness) reviews on the books page. his responses to these books sound like what goes on in my head when i flip through one quickly at the bookstore, so somehow i trust them in the same way.

It was supposed to be competitively bid, but at the last minute the owner hired a house builder to act as general (small commercial building).
My documents are solid, one of the major suppliers (glu-lam) even call me to tell me how nice it was to read my documents and that he usually has to slug thru crap and finds all sorts of errors, but not on mine.
Anyways, this house builder is totally lost in getting decent prices and has the project coming in almost twice what it should and I get the blame. This is the project I posted about some time ago where we had another contractor price it, and he would do it for about half price, but the onwer didn't really care. So we went thru extensive VE (for free of course, our fee ran out months ago) where I butchered every sheet in the set and reissued drawings. There is one error where a bearing point is mislabeled, but it is shown correctly elsewhere. Shit happens. I'm not perfect.
This guy calls and whines most everyday, sometimes to me, mostly to the principal actually. He says I am costing the project lots of money with my errors and inexperience. We have been in the bidding/nego phase since March, that might tell you right there who the inexperienced one is. In comparing the numbers he is coming up with to the price we got from our contractor, he is singlehandedly costing the project several hundred thousand dollars, ruining the architecture, and costing us tens of thousands of dollars in redesign and hand holding.

steve- thanks. I just noticed the books page. When my book gets published, I'll let you be the snarky reviewer.

Ok, I haven't written an entire book, just a chapter/essay... maybe will be out next summer.

StrawB- turn the complaints around. tell the contractor that their inexperience is costing the project $$$$ and point to the other bid. Ask why they can't source common materials like every other competent builder you've worked with? but they won't love you after this- but you're boss will when they stop costing the firm money...

in that case strawb i completely agree with you... WTF... i remember you mentioning the same project a while ago... as tk said, it appears that it is actually their incompetence that is causing all of the problems... maybe this will be a good lesson for the owner... but probably not, its easier to blame the architect than to realize that they f'ed up in choosing an unqualified friend as the contractor...

this is exactly why i'm a big fan of the construction manager process... first, its a totally different level of contractor, much more professional... they're involved from the very beginning of the design process making material/systems suggestions... sure, it costs a little more on the front end, but you typically get less change orders and a much better end project...

it is just a story guys. plus one of the UltraPeeps is my own doing. got an angry e-mail from a local firm saying that i am a pervert and should go and study architecture instead of looking inside the people houses.
i will look in but just as a curiosity and will point to tina if there is something juicy going on. she is usually with me and the dogs they like to bark to people behind the glass. a giveaway. i mean c'mon.
but love is never to say sorry.

haven't had time yet, but looking forward to reading it orhan. looks intriguing.

in my experience, which aint that much cuz i am a late bloomer and chronic underachiever, all fucked up things have to do with the owner trying to save money by hiring the "less" expensive contractor or and this is worse, acting as their own contractor. when they act as their own gc they are usually on vacation when the most critical aspects of the job take place and if anything goes wrong they call in a panic. i had a guy who was his own gc and was out of town when the concrete guy poured the foundation, which he used a scale to measure the drawing somehow missing the cut line in the section and pouring the foundation 18" too short! way to go!

Honest to god, Strawbeary, I think it's time for you guys to consider hiring a lawyer. It sounds like this home-builder is doing some seriously shady shit. Calling you and getting you to change this and VE that......it sounds like he's trying to squeeze every living ounce of profit out of this thing irregardless of how much of it is at your expense. Who's making money here? Not you. Your client's building isn't getting built. What's the contract look like? I am not kidding, if you have a lawyer friend, take them out to lunch and discuss these details.

It certainly would not be the first time a developer tried to rip someone off.

dubKeezy...my neezy...irregardless ain't no word I eva heard of. ya might wanna leave that motha outta yo statement of intent ;-)

snap[/url]


Reminds me of 'ironical', I love words that sound like they arent words.

5000

That was a waste of the 5000th comment.

hahaha. 5000 th. tc post was hi jacked and hacked...
good one.
still public after all those posts.

Oh, you guys are just mean.


Ms. Beary, DubK is right: I know it's not in your power, but your bosses are being total wusses about this. Hang in there doing the grunt work under completely soul-crushing circumstances.

AP, you made a good point. I wasn't even drunk when I wrote that (I am now).... This is what I found:


ir‧re‧gard‧less  /ˌɪrɪˈgɑrdlɪs/
–adverb Nonstandard.
regardless.
[Origin: 1910–15; ir-2 (prob. after irrespective) + regardless]

—Usage note Irregardless is considered nonstandard because of the two negative elements ir- and -less. It was probably formed on the analogy of such words as irrespective, irrelevant, and irreparable. Those who use it, including on occasion educated speakers, may do so from a desire to add emphasis. Irregardless first appeared in the early 20th century and was perhaps popularized by its use in a comic radio program of the 1930s.

damn strawbeary. that be shitty as can be.

i have had similar projects on small jobs. in fact the EXACT same problem, where a friend of the company VP did the job as GC...worst project ever. they even changed details during off-site fabrication and covered it up so we couldn't see til installation (then fcuked that up too). we got a promise that he would redo to specs, but he did a secret meeting with his buddy and it was dropped. I am much more careful about contractors now.

Have never had anything like that with real buildings, nothing costing millions anyway. maybe it is just japan, but the contractors here don't do change orders (details get changed and VE'd but they don't charge for it), and try hard to build the building we designed, even if it takes some creativity on their part. fantastic country to work in that way. its actually a partnership..

anyway...i think you guys need to exercise your fiduciary responsibility and tell the client the building he is getting is not up to standards, is too expensive, and poorly managed. If GC sucks this much at bidding stage the chances it will be properly built are not promising. bad choice to proceed down that path.

wow jump, that sounds awesome. about the change orders

i know. we are totally spoiled here. this is mostly experience from one firm though,an office with a long history in the area, and really good relationships with all the builders...it may be different with other companies, but i somehow doubt it.

best part of the job was figuring out details with the contractor during construction phase, even when we needed to bring down costs or fill in a gap we missed. it was cool cuz there wasn't ever any finger-pointing or attempts to earn a profit from someone else's mistakes. the gc was always on the side of the building cuz it was his reputation and HIS product as much as ours. very professional attitude.

i think it is the same attitude to performance on the job that is currently causing ford and friends such a lot of trouble. downside of course is that people here often tend to put work before family and self...and that ain't healthy either...

Today, I bested the Tax Credit Allocation Commitee. Have any of you guys ever worked with them? Our client dumped the TCAC standards on us a few months ago, and refused to provide any direction as to how many points they needed, whether they were dependent on the bonuses, or what the were and were not willing to do to get them. Until yesterday, when they told us they needed EVERYTHING. We were scheduled to submit to plan check tomorrow, just to put that in perspective. So today, I managed to figure out how to not only meet all the minimum TCAC standards, but to get them the 10pt large family bonus AND the 4% energy effeciency bonus. Now that was a sense of accomplishment.

how is this true? because it's nonstandard, you just forget the ir- when you give the pronunciation?

i guess that way someone might THINK they're saying 'irregardless' and actually say 'regardless' - thereby being correct. it's a mean dirty trick.