I heard a bit tonight on NPR about how McDonald's is launching a trial of putting mini-gyms for kids into its franchises. They have 6 or 7 McDonald's so far with things like, and I quote, a stationary bike with a game console at the handles; climbing ropes; and... shoot, something else that sounded fun but ominously excercise-y.
And I couldn't help but think: didn't they already *have* these things? In the name of... Playlands??? Which made me think, in turn: the reason these kids are fat is not because of a lack of opportunity to run around and play, and certainly not because they need some sort of structured, adult-ish, un-fun concept of excercise-for-excercise's-sake, but because something is making them not *want* to run around, AND because--and here's the kicker--they eat too much, too often, and too poorly. And frankly, the reason they eat so poorly is probably more to do with income level than what kinds of ads McDonald's put out. Eating healthily is expensive--WAY more expensive than eating bad food. Look at how much fruits and veggies cost compared to staples! And bad food is cheap because the government helps it be that way.
So, in summary, McDonald's putting mini-gyms in its franchises is all of the above: a waste of money; a sad commentary on the modern kid's playtime; a red herring that obscures the real cause of childhood obesity and deflects blame from where it is rightfully due; and a palliative that makes poor people feel groundlessly better about the sad fact of their children's nutrition.
when i was a kid, a long time ago, mcD's was a treat, a once in a while dinner or lunch. that however was when parents could parent, but now with less and less face time, and more and more work, parents seem to do and let do what is more expedient - let them eat big mac, marie antionette...
not saying that is the only thing, but sure is a big reason.
btw, i have a photo with my sucks shirt on but have not been able to upload from my phone, i will though cause it's down right sexy it is.
6am. at the office about to leave for a d.d. presentation 2.5 hours south from here...I haven't worn a tie since our schematic presentation a few months ago. my PM picked me up some starbucks on his way in. what a guy...
myriam, I heard that story this morning. ludicrous.
... like putting lipstick on a pig.
i was thinking about going in early as i feel i am behind on something ive been working on. but you know what i am on salary and i don't think there will be that much if any of a christmas bonus and so fuck it im gonna drink some coffee at home and pay some bills online and maybe call in sick.
i am at an internet cafe not too far from the house. izmir is polluted, crowded, ugly and loved. all at once, that is possible.
this not one of those leisure trips. i wish it was. as i uncover one childhood memory after another, the plot continiusly gets deeper and i suffer from data overload.
yesterday i travelled the city only with ferries and made all seven stops and changed three vapurs (ferry) filled with office workers and students going to work and school and the same returning at the end of the day.
life is loud in turkey. the ferry providing quiteness and the sea is bringing in the open space to contrast the concrete jungle. as you look back to the shore all you see is butt jointed buildings and roofs with insignificant amount of green in between.
for a while you can assume american cities have no problems with easier services and infrastructure but the life is more vibrant here.there are seven more cities buried underneat and you feel the ghosts from the past has never left the area. occasional dig for a metro construction exposes a tumbstone that says '.... was a jeweler from sparta and learned the craft in pergamum' some 3000 years ago. his ghost comes out at will and causes sparks on the bay's surface.
he disappears as soon as the cargo ship with thousands of containers shows up and lets ıts loud horn heard from hills away waking people up before the garbage trucks.
i go back to sleep, and i expect old stavros to appear next night to do his sirtaki dance, begging my grandmother to join him both drunk from uzo and dead for years.
Sometimes I wonder why I don't read as much anymore. Then I try to recollect what I did all day, and I realize that I probably spent the day reading mini-novels - novellas, if you will.....and I feel a little bit better.
I just realized I forgot to share with you people the most interested nugget of knowledge gained from my mother over Thanksgiving - in the eyes of God, I am a Quaker. That's right, they're still around, they're hiding in Iowa, and my mother and grandmother got me baptized by the Quakers on my first visit.
wait, what the hell am I missing here? Why the hell am I not understanding the question at all? What do you mean what type of work should you do? Haven't you done the work already? If you haven't done the work already, do you really think you have a prayer? So confused...
Well, he mentioned in previous posts that he is a recent grad (associates degree pursuing a bachelor in Architecture) with 5 year expertise in AutoCad with novice experience in Revit. I think he is frustrated that he can't find a job with his experience – he is having a hard time getting his foot in the door but I think his strengths now strongly rely on his marketing skills – selling his abilities. I assume he has portfolio work to back him up since he has posted a building "Portfolio" question. I don't think he is lacking experience for an entry level job (that is why I pointed out the "personal assistant" tasks). As we all know, the entry level job is not what you expect it to be:)
So I am in programming/schematic phase of a new HUGE project with my "favorite" co-worker and there is no PM to speak of (we are supposed to hire a new principal to act as PM). I was out of the office the morning we got the program from the owner, so she appointed herself "head designer". So my new theory is that this girl is seriously aggressive and grabs any responsibilty she can get, which means she takes it from me. She is making some immature decisions and is drawing plans as though nothing will be edited (she fusses and strives for PERFECTION the first time thru). As the older person, I try to provide direction and critique. I make sure I am very positive and reasonable in my critique, but she insists her design works.
At first we tried to meet every few days to hash things out and discuss options. I would propose a different way of looking at things and she would respond simply with "But that's not how I had it," ending all possiblity of intelligent design dialogue and brainstorming. Then after several instances of her accusing me of "moving things around" in the drawings, etc, we have come to the point of working parallel - I have my version of the project, and she has hers. We are battling over design territory! ARGGH!! The office is totally against heirarchy, which I thought was cool at one point, but really it just means young inexperienced people do whatever they feel like and no one can tell them otherwise. Why wasn't I here 5 years ago?
She still has no idea I think she is really immature and stubborn. I'm sure everyone else in the office just thinks she's cute.
Ok, now I have to go post 3 positive things elsewhere to make up for this rant.
Strawbeary. How are you putting up with this shit. Seriously. I thought you were kidding about the Head Designer post you mentioned someplace else.
Do you seriously not have any kind of title or sway whatsoever so that you can't get her put on another project or something? Or at least yourself? Something must be done. I've met some pretty rotten coworkers in my time but none of them like this.
~~~~~
On a side note, I just thought I would mention that some of the threads the past couple of days make me feel like I'm in 7th grade again, and this is my homeroom. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but visualize with me for a second: the boys are having a farting contest in the corner......mdler is shooting jibes at me while dammson and baboomba are making comments about myriam's chest......Strawbeary's coworker can't play well with others.......rationalist is freaking out about an assignment......and vado is listening to emo music in the corner. And if I were Susan I would try to stage this and take a picture of it.
WK, we have the same title, everyone basically does 'cept Principal. it is supposed to foster an "everybody is equal" atmosphere.
I'm feeling great, because I just looked at her plans and she doesn't have 1/10 what I have (what she does have is very thorough and detailed down to the casework uppers and grab bars!). Shit I don't even have doors and windows in yet.
garpike just passed me a note in 2nd period to tell me that we have the same number of posts. Gah! The planets are aligned. Garwondler has something to do with this, no doubt......
now aren't you all glad there's a single grad school thread where people like me can go to 'freak out', instead of dragging it all in here?
BTW, in office updates. CADguy is once again not present. I don't see how this guy stays employed!!! I honestly think that my office is too scared to fire people. All the underlings are sooooo ready for him to be gone. He keeps saying things about how we'll all be sorry when he leaves, but we're just waiting for him to find the balls to do it.
I am posting this from a leather armchair in front of the fire at my local library. That's right, I'm at the library hearth. With free wifi and plugs for laptops incorporated into every desk and chair. I LOVE this library!!!!
Seriously, Strawbeary, I don't know how you stand it. You and rationalist and WonderK must all have the patience of fucking saints.
WonderK--props on the smooth cussing inclusion! Well done, young grasshopper. And you're right about high school. As soon as I get these resumes out I'm going to take a new picture to supplant that one. I feel bad about it. My cheeks have been flaming all morning.
YOU shouldn't feel bad myriam! It's not your fault. I thought they were cute pictures. And you know, these things come and go in waves. The forum just happens to be going through puberty right now.....a few more weeks and we'll all be making out in the back of cars again, lol.
My life resembles junior high, and not just on archinect. First of all I’m a wimp and I suck, just like junior high and there is Justin Timberlake music coming from somewhere. We just met with the principal to show our ideas and we had like 5 minutes total. She starts out by explaining what is “wrong” with my plan and then why her plan is far superior. One of her main design points is that the dining room has a fireplace! Whoop-ti-doo. She points out that my dining room has NO fireplace. Principal spews out plenty of praise, delighted that this genius has somehow thought to include a fireplace in the dining room and that will make the whole 500,000 s.f. independant living facility! I get like 1 minute to explain my concept. Principal has to leave, says that the two plans have lots of potential and that we need to combine them. I so wanted to just bust out that she had no mechanical room, plenty of awkward spaces like a 8’ by 20’ conference room, restrooms off the dining room, the footprint doesn’t fit on the site with the parking we need (which I worked out with my plan but didn't get to talk about), the residential and service functions share hallways throughout violating privacy issues for the apartments, no electrical rooms, janitor, admin or housekeeping areas, and several other programmatic functions, and to top it all off the elevator door is literally 16” from the front door in the lobby (off to the side).
Now I am sitting here listening to contented sighs of, “gosh, I am so smart, I am so smart.” I’m going to puke. She just asked me if it would be overstepping her bounds to send her plan to the client. Yes, I think so.
What an unpleasant experience Strawbeary. Where are you at? I'm head'n over to mdler's house this afternoon for a bitch-slap; I can swing by your place after that and give her a woop'n :) Seriously though, this girl has some problems.
I'm working on some redlines this morning of a testfit of an office layout for our interior guy, but for some reason there are pink and yellow lines as well. I wonder what those mean?
The yellow are already done, right?And the pink are notes the reviewer made to remind him/herself of thing s that *might* need to be changed.
DubK, did you mean to spell it LouisVILE? I love Louisville!
Met with an awesome, awesome female GC this morning. I think it's going to work out that she will do my next project - she's awesome and cool and I'm really excited about working with her.
Oh LB I wish it were that easy. I talked to the guy, and the yellow is to be removed, and the pink is essentially the same as the red, but his red marker died! I had to call him at home to figure that one out.
Is your awesome, awesome female GC attractive? Or is she how I would picture a female GC, with a cut off "Bad Boys Club" t-shirt and a feathered mullet?
first job out of undergrad, I worked for a design build firm where the architect was gay and the GC was butch- had lots of fun working there. No mullets on any of the carpenters though.
i have met the contractor that lb is speaking of. she is attractive. but she was standing next to lb and therefore appeared less attractive than if i was viewing her objectiveley.
Thread Central
#9
I heard a bit tonight on NPR about how McDonald's is launching a trial of putting mini-gyms for kids into its franchises. They have 6 or 7 McDonald's so far with things like, and I quote, a stationary bike with a game console at the handles; climbing ropes; and... shoot, something else that sounded fun but ominously excercise-y.
And I couldn't help but think: didn't they already *have* these things? In the name of... Playlands??? Which made me think, in turn: the reason these kids are fat is not because of a lack of opportunity to run around and play, and certainly not because they need some sort of structured, adult-ish, un-fun concept of excercise-for-excercise's-sake, but because something is making them not *want* to run around, AND because--and here's the kicker--they eat too much, too often, and too poorly. And frankly, the reason they eat so poorly is probably more to do with income level than what kinds of ads McDonald's put out. Eating healthily is expensive--WAY more expensive than eating bad food. Look at how much fruits and veggies cost compared to staples! And bad food is cheap because the government helps it be that way.
So, in summary, McDonald's putting mini-gyms in its franchises is all of the above: a waste of money; a sad commentary on the modern kid's playtime; a red herring that obscures the real cause of childhood obesity and deflects blame from where it is rightfully due; and a palliative that makes poor people feel groundlessly better about the sad fact of their children's nutrition.
(rant over)
and now for something completely different.
It's like those new Burger King happy meals that come with video games. Insane!
when i was a kid, a long time ago, mcD's was a treat, a once in a while dinner or lunch. that however was when parents could parent, but now with less and less face time, and more and more work, parents seem to do and let do what is more expedient - let them eat big mac, marie antionette...
not saying that is the only thing, but sure is a big reason.
btw, i have a photo with my sucks shirt on but have not been able to upload from my phone, i will though cause it's down right sexy it is.
6am. at the office about to leave for a d.d. presentation 2.5 hours south from here...I haven't worn a tie since our schematic presentation a few months ago. my PM picked me up some starbucks on his way in. what a guy...
myriam, I heard that story this morning. ludicrous.
... like putting lipstick on a pig.
i was thinking about going in early as i feel i am behind on something ive been working on. but you know what i am on salary and i don't think there will be that much if any of a christmas bonus and so fuck it im gonna drink some coffee at home and pay some bills online and maybe call in sick.
i am at an internet cafe not too far from the house. izmir is polluted, crowded, ugly and loved. all at once, that is possible.
this not one of those leisure trips. i wish it was. as i uncover one childhood memory after another, the plot continiusly gets deeper and i suffer from data overload.
yesterday i travelled the city only with ferries and made all seven stops and changed three vapurs (ferry) filled with office workers and students going to work and school and the same returning at the end of the day.
life is loud in turkey. the ferry providing quiteness and the sea is bringing in the open space to contrast the concrete jungle. as you look back to the shore all you see is butt jointed buildings and roofs with insignificant amount of green in between.
for a while you can assume american cities have no problems with easier services and infrastructure but the life is more vibrant here.there are seven more cities buried underneat and you feel the ghosts from the past has never left the area. occasional dig for a metro construction exposes a tumbstone that says '.... was a jeweler from sparta and learned the craft in pergamum' some 3000 years ago. his ghost comes out at will and causes sparks on the bay's surface.
he disappears as soon as the cargo ship with thousands of containers shows up and lets ıts loud horn heard from hills away waking people up before the garbage trucks.
i go back to sleep, and i expect old stavros to appear next night to do his sirtaki dance, begging my grandmother to join him both drunk from uzo and dead for years.
Sometimes I wonder why I don't read as much anymore. Then I try to recollect what I did all day, and I realize that I probably spent the day reading mini-novels - novellas, if you will.....and I feel a little bit better.
Thanks Orhan.
The city is often the best story you can find, if you're open to it.
That was a really pleasant vignette, Orhan.
I just realized I forgot to share with you people the most interested nugget of knowledge gained from my mother over Thanksgiving - in the eyes of God, I am a Quaker. That's right, they're still around, they're hiding in Iowa, and my mother and grandmother got me baptized by the Quakers on my first visit.
god has eyes? creepy.
Philly is full of Quakers.
holy cow!! it's BEER:58! what am i still doing here?!
cheers!
wait, what the hell am I missing here? Why the hell am I not understanding the question at all? What do you mean what type of work should you do? Haven't you done the work already? If you haven't done the work already, do you really think you have a prayer? So confused...
Well, he mentioned in previous posts that he is a recent grad (associates degree pursuing a bachelor in Architecture) with 5 year expertise in AutoCad with novice experience in Revit. I think he is frustrated that he can't find a job with his experience – he is having a hard time getting his foot in the door but I think his strengths now strongly rely on his marketing skills – selling his abilities. I assume he has portfolio work to back him up since he has posted a building "Portfolio" question. I don't think he is lacking experience for an entry level job (that is why I pointed out the "personal assistant" tasks). As we all know, the entry level job is not what you expect it to be:)
all my jobs are entry level...
I'm a novice, even though I have been working in this field for 32 years....
gol-dang.
So I am in programming/schematic phase of a new HUGE project with my "favorite" co-worker and there is no PM to speak of (we are supposed to hire a new principal to act as PM). I was out of the office the morning we got the program from the owner, so she appointed herself "head designer". So my new theory is that this girl is seriously aggressive and grabs any responsibilty she can get, which means she takes it from me. She is making some immature decisions and is drawing plans as though nothing will be edited (she fusses and strives for PERFECTION the first time thru). As the older person, I try to provide direction and critique. I make sure I am very positive and reasonable in my critique, but she insists her design works.
At first we tried to meet every few days to hash things out and discuss options. I would propose a different way of looking at things and she would respond simply with "But that's not how I had it," ending all possiblity of intelligent design dialogue and brainstorming. Then after several instances of her accusing me of "moving things around" in the drawings, etc, we have come to the point of working parallel - I have my version of the project, and she has hers. We are battling over design territory! ARGGH!! The office is totally against heirarchy, which I thought was cool at one point, but really it just means young inexperienced people do whatever they feel like and no one can tell them otherwise. Why wasn't I here 5 years ago?
She still has no idea I think she is really immature and stubborn. I'm sure everyone else in the office just thinks she's cute.
Ok, now I have to go post 3 positive things elsewhere to make up for this rant.
Strawbeary. How are you putting up with this shit. Seriously. I thought you were kidding about the Head Designer post you mentioned someplace else.
Do you seriously not have any kind of title or sway whatsoever so that you can't get her put on another project or something? Or at least yourself? Something must be done. I've met some pretty rotten coworkers in my time but none of them like this.
~~~~~
On a side note, I just thought I would mention that some of the threads the past couple of days make me feel like I'm in 7th grade again, and this is my homeroom. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but visualize with me for a second: the boys are having a farting contest in the corner......mdler is shooting jibes at me while dammson and baboomba are making comments about myriam's chest......Strawbeary's coworker can't play well with others.......rationalist is freaking out about an assignment......and vado is listening to emo music in the corner. And if I were Susan I would try to stage this and take a picture of it.
I'm just saying!
mdler only pokes fun because he likes you.
That's what someone told me in Math yesterday.
WK, we have the same title, everyone basically does 'cept Principal. it is supposed to foster an "everybody is equal" atmosphere.
I'm feeling great, because I just looked at her plans and she doesn't have 1/10 what I have (what she does have is very thorough and detailed down to the casework uppers and grab bars!). Shit I don't even have doors and windows in yet.
As a concrete example to why schools that teach with practice in mind (and no rigor) is not a good idea, I offer you my co-worker.
garpike just passed me a note in 2nd period to tell me that we have the same number of posts. Gah! The planets are aligned. Garwondler has something to do with this, no doubt......
Get mdler up to speed and we can celebrate TriForce6000 in 2007!
mdler would be closer if you added his entries in there.
Damn it. Now I feel compelled to keep up.
now aren't you all glad there's a single grad school thread where people like me can go to 'freak out', instead of dragging it all in here?
BTW, in office updates. CADguy is once again not present. I don't see how this guy stays employed!!! I honestly think that my office is too scared to fire people. All the underlings are sooooo ready for him to be gone. He keeps saying things about how we'll all be sorry when he leaves, but we're just waiting for him to find the balls to do it.
Sorry, that's my petty little rant for the day.
I am posting this from a leather armchair in front of the fire at my local library. That's right, I'm at the library hearth. With free wifi and plugs for laptops incorporated into every desk and chair. I LOVE this library!!!!
the correct answer:
"But that's not how I had it,"
"That's because you had it wrong."
Seriously, Strawbeary, I don't know how you stand it. You and rationalist and WonderK must all have the patience of fucking saints.
WonderK--props on the smooth cussing inclusion! Well done, young grasshopper. And you're right about high school. As soon as I get these resumes out I'm going to take a new picture to supplant that one. I feel bad about it. My cheeks have been flaming all morning.
YOU shouldn't feel bad myriam! It's not your fault. I thought they were cute pictures. And you know, these things come and go in waves. The forum just happens to be going through puberty right now.....a few more weeks and we'll all be making out in the back of cars again, lol.
not me...i'm too cool for this teenage shit...see you guys later
wow! up over 39000 views, congrats Abra! we have success!
My life resembles junior high, and not just on archinect. First of all I’m a wimp and I suck, just like junior high and there is Justin Timberlake music coming from somewhere. We just met with the principal to show our ideas and we had like 5 minutes total. She starts out by explaining what is “wrong” with my plan and then why her plan is far superior. One of her main design points is that the dining room has a fireplace! Whoop-ti-doo. She points out that my dining room has NO fireplace. Principal spews out plenty of praise, delighted that this genius has somehow thought to include a fireplace in the dining room and that will make the whole 500,000 s.f. independant living facility! I get like 1 minute to explain my concept. Principal has to leave, says that the two plans have lots of potential and that we need to combine them. I so wanted to just bust out that she had no mechanical room, plenty of awkward spaces like a 8’ by 20’ conference room, restrooms off the dining room, the footprint doesn’t fit on the site with the parking we need (which I worked out with my plan but didn't get to talk about), the residential and service functions share hallways throughout violating privacy issues for the apartments, no electrical rooms, janitor, admin or housekeeping areas, and several other programmatic functions, and to top it all off the elevator door is literally 16” from the front door in the lobby (off to the side).
Now I am sitting here listening to contented sighs of, “gosh, I am so smart, I am so smart.” I’m going to puke. She just asked me if it would be overstepping her bounds to send her plan to the client. Yes, I think so.
send her plan to the client before it has been approved by the firm to go out the door????
What an unpleasant experience Strawbeary. Where are you at? I'm head'n over to mdler's house this afternoon for a bitch-slap; I can swing by your place after that and give her a woop'n :) Seriously though, this girl has some problems.
Mdler – just kidding.
somebody needs to shit in this girls cornflakes.
i was going to start a louisville holiday happy hour thread but didn't think anyone would answer. [sigh.]
When are they going to post the winners for the Shinkenchiku Residential Competition? It has been 3 months.
I think you might be holding it down all by yourself in Louisvile, Steven.
I'm working on some redlines this morning of a testfit of an office layout for our interior guy, but for some reason there are pink and yellow lines as well. I wonder what those mean?
The yellow are already done, right?And the pink are notes the reviewer made to remind him/herself of thing s that *might* need to be changed.
DubK, did you mean to spell it LouisVILE? I love Louisville!
Met with an awesome, awesome female GC this morning. I think it's going to work out that she will do my next project - she's awesome and cool and I'm really excited about working with her.
Oh LB I wish it were that easy. I talked to the guy, and the yellow is to be removed, and the pink is essentially the same as the red, but his red marker died! I had to call him at home to figure that one out.
Is your awesome, awesome female GC attractive? Or is she how I would picture a female GC, with a cut off "Bad Boys Club" t-shirt and a feathered mullet?
She's exceptionally attractive, of course.
Crap, I did say LouisVILE, didn't I. It was a mistake of course. Ironic though.
I can't wait to be a GC for something, probably my own house. No mullet though.
Cut of B.B.C. t-shirt, yes?
first job out of undergrad, I worked for a design build firm where the architect was gay and the GC was butch- had lots of fun working there. No mullets on any of the carpenters though.
failing to grasp the irony, wonderk.
treekiller, i put a question for you on your owens river news item.
i have met the contractor that lb is speaking of. she is attractive. but she was standing next to lb and therefore appeared less attractive than if i was viewing her objectiveley.
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