people are pissed because they were intending to put "visiting critic at archinect-2007" on their cv's.

Oh and BTW beta and DCA: congrats on passing exams!!! Just a few more to go, soon your own personal Everest will be conquered!

vado- you hit it right on the head!

ahhhhhh, that was fun. But I need to becareful of how I use my superpowers... making people cry isn't very nice, but can be very cathartic. could sevenA be per?

7A used to be a good bar on thompkins square, it will be hard to ever drink there ever again.

I myself tend not to like to chase people off the playground outright. I have this wacky notion that the majority of the people in this world have something to contribute to society, and I'm usually willing to wait for it, even if it takes them a while to get there.

Which is not to say that someone somewhere in there didn't deserve some kind of smack-down, I just like to take the "alleviate the situation with humor" approach.

vado - I put Time Magazine's 2006 Person of the Year on my cv, whats wrong with adjunct archinect critic? .... back to logo-schmogo for me.

yeah Cameron, how's that going?

tk..
7a is still a good place to get brunch..don't know about what it's like for
drinks..seems as though the bar area would be too small for that..unless
you dig sitting at tables..

811 entries --> 60 --> 25 --> ?? (final round of voting)

..not bad for 45 jury members in four continents..

Jeez! 811 entries, 45 jurors? That's a lot of critiquing.

global org - global voices... (Rem wouldn't have it any other way)

re: exams. Thanks liberty bell! (I'm trying to keep a relatively low profile about my exams at work and among my co-workers. I'm glad I have Archinect to report on my results - or else I might just explode.)

what happened to that special green-and-red "best of 2006" thread? that was a really great thread.

Request for a quick favor:

A couple weeks ago somebody posted a black & white photo of a 1950's ranch house with a big sweeping roof interescted by a large chimney, and with large windows and (I think) a carport on the left-hand side.

I'm in a chat right now with somebody from another board I frequent, and I was trying to find that photo to link to... Searching Archinect came up empty. Can anybody find that photo within the next few minutes?

thanks liberty, but i haven't received any scores yet, i just felt real good after my SP exam - like i actually knew what the hell i was doing. i breezed through both sections with no problems and better yet no headaches. i am saving the headaches for the last three.

Of course, beta, I recall that now - you were just feeling like you "owned" that exam, right? Well I'm sure you passed it. No doubt.

LiG - are you chatting with some cute archi-filly and need to quick impress her with Modern Architecture?!? Good luck. (And sorry, I don't recall the image or I'd help of course!).

curious what the last three are, beta.

when i was taking the exam i was terrified of the structures exam, having not even [i]thought[i/] about structures, beyond memorizing the phone number of our structural engineer, since 1988. (which raises the question: why can't you just write your engineers' number on the exam?!) but it was not nearly as daunting as i had expected.

in fact, all of the multiple choice sections went smoothly. i had much more problem with the $%&+# bogus software that you have to learn to do the graphic sections. i remember fighting with ONE LINE at the edge of a parking lot for 20 minutes just to get the damn thing to stay where i put it.

steven, ME in three weeks, then LF and GS....i did not want it to happen this way, but with the move, structures had to wait. here's hoping that the thaddeus seminar and the powers of recall and good studying work in my favor!

thanks liberty. i really want those graphics to be done.

i think (hope) you'll be happily surprised with the LF and GS. not that you shouldn't do all you can to prepare, but your preparation will be rewarded. as you probably remember from school: "watch your units!"

I just noticed the [url-http://www.archinect.com/forum/threads.php?id=44286_0_42_0_C]Zaha thread[/url] was started by jkaliski - working on another book?

I've been so busy lately that I feel like I can't intelligently discuss anything - too much fog in my brain from worrying about little things like cabinet pulls and why we haven't gotten our Certificate of Appropriatemeness from IHPC and getting the ducting to work on a very tight hood installation. So all I have to contribute to jkaliski's query is "warm fuzzy".

On the other hand, I was asked to form a complete curriculum for my potential "Architecture Appreciation" course and was able to do it in a couple hours, from a vague idea to a fully formed syllabus in an afternoon - and it actually sounds like a course I would enjoy!

Seems lately my brain turns on when it needs to and goes into sleep mode hte rest of the day.

Aww poop I knew I had screwed that up!

happy monday everyone.

steven, i so want to be done with this soon, i need to get focused for grad school applications, although i think my choices are limited to one right now.

man, I need to get that barry fellow back on his meds. Sometimes he seems to get a little too propriatary about archinect as if this is his own personal playground...

happy monday folks!

lb, what's a Certificate of Appropriateness!?!? I should probably sign up to get one of those, lol.

All this talk about exams.....I happen to know a few others who are taking them right now too, ahem....it's got my stomach in knots. I figured out a while ago that I was finished with IDP and promptly stopped counting my hours. I'm in denial. I could start to take the test but I feel strongly that if you don't think your supervisors are competent then how can you be competent? So I guess beta and I are pulling opposites right now....I am going to tackle grad school first and hope it gets me back into shape for studying, and then start the exams when I get out. Ah a lifetime of studying!

happy monday, indeed, AP. Here's to not letting the stress overwhelm me....

Actually I like it when that Barry fellow gets proprietary - I think he's making valid points.

lehrman, variant of lehrmann > lehren: ‘to teach’ + mann: ‘man’

the teacher man sees it as his duty to school the newbies?

i cringed a little because it sounded harsh, but then i'm not likely to ever be the one to go after anyone, whether they deserve it or not. most of the time when i've pissed someone off here it's been a complete accident or out of ignorance. realizing that, i usually give the benefit of the doubt when i interpret someone's typing-tone as aggressive or insulting.

i was confused why sevena went after chch, but he apparently felt some slight and was merely responding honestly.

i think wonderk's right: if sevena now thinks of as a club, he (i'm assuming here) won't be able to resist coming back. maybe. in time we may all grow to love him and he'll be on the editorial panel, etc.

yow,.
back to the lady who holds scales.

first monday in years that someone else figured out what i am gonna be doing for the rest of the day. nice.
judge said last friday we might hear the closing arguments today and possibly tomorrow start the deliberations and be done with it.

i can imagine this little fart cost the taxpayers at least 100K. never mind the jury's time. i bet you justice is more costly than the health care. i wonder how many clerks, jailers, legal staff etc. are involved? but looking around and seeing how many people are shuffling papers, the numbers could be well in three digits or close to it. 100K is, i think an economy case.

i included this pic in the 'workstation' thread, but i've added notes so that it can also be part of myriam's happy-things-you-see-right-now game.

steven's desk on flickr

i guess everyone's got a brick sample on or near their desks!

awesome Steven.

here's my workstation, also linked to the workstation thread (previously, with notes of happy things)...

i just heard that someone laid a huge fart in manhattan...

not to worry. it was only Raphael Vignoli

first off...I've been staying away from this Thread cause I was.....well frankly, scared! it's soooooo HUGE, almost out of control! LOL

but I have found myself on here...although I can't say I've read all of it.

AP, I think that whole thing with your workstation pic, that's pretty awesome.

Steven--thanks, I was wondering what a lot of those things were! ...although I have to say, the happiest thing I see on that page is the preceding pic... ;)

abra--truly i never thought of how much all these cases must cost. what a staggering idea. and this is a legitimate case--wonder how much the fraudulent cases cost us all??? the longer i go on in this profession, the stronger i feel about cracking down on fraudulent cases. it seems like too often the threat of a lawsuit is used to extort in this country.

AP--your comment about the office park is depressing. it's like that here in orange county, too--and yet my parents continue to propose that i work for one of the large firms in irvine. i finally stopped being polite about it and started to say things like "it will kill my soul to work in a place like that" "i'd rather stab my eardrums out with a toothpick" "please never talk to me about that again if you want me to remain your loving daughter" and yet they *still* tell me "hey did you know there's a huge firm in irvine that's hiring?? i saw an ad in o.c. magazine!!!" argh.

you have an o.c. magazine? and your parents actually read it? wow...i didn't realize california was such a geeky architectural culture.

Woot! I'm feeling FINE this morning. I'm ready to send out two grad school portfolio/resume/letterofintent packages today, I just got a call scheduling a grad school interview with a head of program/designer I admire very very much, AND the interior designer at work who I occasionally conflict with actually referred me for a freelance graphic design job for a small mom-n-pop shop this weekend. Right now I'm feeling like life is good, I'm heading in the right direction, I can do this thing.

just for that, i'm gonna send you a copy of it, puddles. just you wait.

Myriam- I've worked for them before. Don't do it. Just don't. Not only can it kill your soul, but it can leave a stigma on your resume for a while. Tell your parents that if you work for them, you'll have an even harder time finding your next job when that's over with. Those firms are all incestuous, because nobody else wants to take someone who's wasted their time on tract housing and Jamba Juice.

Myriam: My parents are the same way. They live near sprawl-ridden Raleigh, NC, and you can't spit in their cookie-cutter neighborhood without hitting a new Wal-Mart strip mall or subdivision of McMansions under construction. My parents see all this construction and assume that local architects must be on a furious hiring spree. After years of them trying to convince me to move down to their boom town of Knightdale, North Carolina, I finally had to tell them in blunt terms:

1) Just because there's a Home Depot being built up the street from you doesn't mean some local architect was even involved on the project. Chances are it's being built from a stock set of plans and signed by some lackey at a corporate office in Gravel Pit County, Wyoming.

2) I'd rather shoot myself in the face than work on those type of projects, anyway. I had a role in designing the shell and core of the Neiman Marcus in Charlotte, and I felt dirty for months afterward. And as far as big boxes go, that's considered a "good" project.

ha ha ha! seriously, guys. no worries! i refuse. it's just not going to happen, ever. i honestly will never be that desperate (becaues if i GET that desperate, i will WAITRESS or STEWARDESS before i work in one of those firms).

SW- very good etymology - of tk's family tree are teachers, the other half are doctors, lawyers and engineers.

Unfortunately teaching will occasionally include giving a flunking grade. TK almost picked that fight instead...

i come from teachers, civil engineers, artists, and mechanics. i always figured it was simply genetic that i become an architect. i bet a lot of us are similar?

All through architecture school my partner kept threatening to quit and become a stewardess (or in his case, steward) instead.

Oh, and welcome, squirelly - I really don't want people to be afraid to post here - this is each and every archinect members' personal blog spot, right? - I just don't like seeing fights from other threads end up here.

myriam, although I somewhat enjoy the work at this firm (all things considered), and like many of my co-workers, and learn a great deal (thanks to a patient few)...the overall environment (office park, often and overt reminders of the sort of firm that I work for etc) is a huge reason for my pending escape. we don't do shite, but there is plenty of untapped potential, and that's frustrating all too often...


re: working at 'one of the large firms in town' that does shite...

while in undergrad, I made an analogy for my father (an automobile mechanic) that borrowed from Towards a New Architecture -

good architecture vs. bad architecture (or mere building) is like the difference between driving a Porsche vs. a Toyota Tercel. Both get you where you're going, but the Porsche has the ability to lift your spirits along the way.

they're called flight attendants.

Thanks, AP - I knew that, but as I said my brain has been in sleep mode for awhile.

that's a good analogy. my dad's a mechanic, too--i'll have to try it. my parents understand good architecture, though, oddly--they just want me home and don't understand good office culture. or at least, they don't understand how important it is, to me. they figure--hey, at least you get a paycheck, right?? what difference does it make what you're working on? they can understand the difference in the output but not why it should matter to me so much, i guess.

also, AP, i didn't mean to insinuate that your office does bad work. just that i don't like working in office parks. in many places in america, sadly, that's the only commercial space available--so even good firms are forced to work in office parks! i didn't mean to suggest that yours wasn't a good firm. i'm sorry. just that i hate office parks, so, so, so much.

flight attendants, waitresses and architects have a great deal in common.

I have actually used that analogy too - to clients who drive Mercedes, I say "A builder home with all the bells and whistles is still more like a top-of-the-line, tricked out Plymouth." whereas what I will give them will be a Mercedes.