ok, i got the teeth flossed...feeling much better now.
i did walk home...but no blizzard here. there's many reasons that i don't have a car but one of the biggest is how much it makes me dislike winter when i have to drive in all that shit.
i dislike pc's too but have bounced back & forth between windows (work) & mac (home) for so long that i hardly notice any difference. wow...that must be what it feels like to be bilingual. i need to start working on my norwegian again. the harder transition for me was using autocad (maybe version 2000 or 2002) before grad school, then not touching it for two years (had a part time job but we used microstation) and by the time i came back and picked it up again in version 2004 (or maybe 2006...i'm not even sure which version i'm using now) it seemed like alot had changed. now all the drawing sheets are set up on tabs within in a single file and there's a bunch of 3d/parametric modeling elements, etc. i'm not sure if these are even necessarily new things or shit was just different than the way we used to work at my old firm like four years...either way it definitely messed with my head for a while. trouble was...i'd think i'd know how to do something, but would only have a vague recollection...and then it might not even be there. it really felt worse than starting from scratch.
and i'm also a bit tired of a new discussion every other week about architects needing more money. if all the people who actually did the heavy bitching about needing to be paid more would just leave the profession then it would probably eliminate enough of our competition that we'd actually be in demand...and able to charge more appropriately.
but enough of that...i think i've got some pro bono work to do for some very rich people somewhere...i'm practically a superhero.
no snow here either. we are lately in the late teens (celcius; sorry i forget what that is in farenheit) most days, and is starting to get sweater is enough warm already. love it, cuz i grew up in climate same as siberia. but i hate that it is already spring. have a dissertation due this summer and that is coming on way too fast. yikes.
money and architecture? i don't know. bitch if you want to, I don't mind. me i am pretty happy with most every aspect of my life right now and would not change a damn thing...love my work, and hopefully someday i will make lots of money at it. or i won't. either way is pretty much ok with me as long as i can still do architecture and keep my family fed, healthy and together.
Money is overrated. I would rather spend my life either in debt or breaking even, but happy, than extremely wealthy and working like a dog, etc. You have to be happy with where you are instead of always thinking you won't be happy until you get more of this or that....life is a finite operation, here. You can't take it with you.
myriam
i hear what you're saying..i haven't really read all that much in the
architects/money threads. and i realize that it doesn't promote the
profession..and that there are people out there far less fortunate than
us.
but i can also understand how someone coming out of grad school
with 100k of debt would feel surprised/disenchanted getting out into
the world and realizing the financial situation they're in. i feel as
though architecture school should deal a bit more with the pragmatic
sides of architecture..maybe some required business courses? maybe
a bit less focus on design? i loved that school wasn't about that..and
was all about experimentation and drawing/modelling..but what i
would've given to know what a long row there was to hoe.
with that said..it has never been about money for me. i enjoy working
for the work and don't work at places that would pay me more just
so i have more money. it'd just be nice if one oculd do good work and
get a reasonable amount of money for it.
larslarson- regarding the school debt issue, i agree. but i also feel that schools have some responsibility here too as they are generally graduating more people than are needed in the profession. of course, it's just a money grab for them to enroll more students so what's to stop them...even if a prospective student is broke, they'll help get the loans.
is it any wonder that we now have an awkward & cumbersome "intern development program" the requires completion before sitting for the licensing exams when our universities have effectively relinquished their role as "gate keepers" to our distinguished profession?
oh god, get me out of here. My bosses KNOW I've been taking graphic design classes. They KNOW it's something I'm interested in. Still, they insist on making me review shop drawings for weeks on end, while someone else in the office gets to do all of the graphic work because she's a good photographer.... while they hire an outside professional to shoot all of their buildings. WTF?! If they really love her so much, give her the opportunity to use her photography knowledge, don't make her stumble through graphic design and say stupid things about font choice when you HAVE someone who's educated in graphic design right here! I'm insulted that they won't even let me try. They have never, once, let me do something graphic from scratch. They only let me update what people have done in the past, and it is driving me absolutely nuts. I don't know if I can wait until grad school acceptances. I just need out.
on money- yes, I agree that schools being more stringent would do a world of good. If it were harder to hire workers, there's a good chance they'd value us a bit more.
rationalist, i sense that you're frustrated in general today (maybe not only with the situation described above?) if it were me, i'd buy a bunch of cds or books during lunch. what's your feel-good magic-bullet?
Steven- nah, the other thing wasn't actually frustrating, just rushed. None of the criticism there hurt at all actually, because it all stemmed from you guys knowing the building and what you wanted to convey better than I do, which is inevitable in that situation.
It's really just work. I'm sitting here doing the most boring, tedious, mind-numbing work in the office, which I get assigned because I'm supposedly sooooo good, while less-skilled people get to do all the exciting, interesting work. It's something that's been bugging me for a while- it seems like I would have a much better job if I were less skilled, if I didn't try to learn everything I can, and that just pisses me off. It's completely contrary to everything our society claims to value. If you do good work, you should be rewarded for it. If you do shitty work, you should be fired for it. But somehow, those who do good work are getting punished, and those who don't know how to do that work we're getting punished with because they've never tried to learn it, are getting rewarded! It just kills me, and I don't know if it's this office, or this profession, or what, but it's driving me nuts because it makes me feel like it'll always be this way, because I can't just un-learn the things I've learned, so I'll be repeatedly stuck with them.
ok, [/rant]. Hopefully. I'll try to calm down. And yes, lunch hour will be spent in a quiet place with a good book, so that hopefully by the time I come back I can take this insult with dignity.
hmmm...let it all out huh. okay. perhaps TC can help me with me neighbor problem. they refuse to lock the doors to ALL common areas; front door, back door, garage door. they also do not turn off common area lights, that are on our panel - so we pay for all that lectricity. we've talked to them directly, sat down with the landlord and the tenant and still no regard for our safety or our concerns regarding our electric bill. i have half a mind to shit on their stair, but that might not solve anything. any clues with asshole neighbors?
beta- you are no longer in crime ridden jersey, but 'everybody is nice and they don't lock doors in canada either' Minnesota.
So has anything disappeared yet? does this dispute explain the military hardware fetish of a few days ago?
regarding the lights in the hall, your landlord should be paying for the common area lights. If not, then start flipping the circuit breaker off when you don't need the lights on out there.
I agree with treekiller on the circuit breaker comment. You shouldn't be paying for those lights.
Also, rationalist, I am basically in the exact same situation as you. I am apparently so skilled that I "get" to do code reviews and drawing reviews. I have been letting myself get distracted more and more lately in an effort to avoid poking my eye out with a stick.
That's exactly it. Do you think they know that this work makes us want to commit hara-kiri at our desks, or that they really believe that it's interesting work? The thing that's even worse is that the girl who sits back-to-back with me really, really wants to learn about every aspect of the projects, but is stuck doing 3D models and presentation boards all day, while I'd kill for her job but am stuck with shop drawings. We've both talked to the 'office manager/human resources' type principal about this, and been told all of the right things, but then nothing changes.
killa, the problem is two-fold; if i disable the lights i increase the safety issues and with this rapist in the area still unaccounted for, that's a big concern and if keep believing that mn nice routine a wouldn't feel the need to bang on my neighbors door at 130 am to lock the door. what i did last night was put post-its on the door an d lights reminding them to lock and turn off, and what did i find when i got home? yep front door unlocked all day long and post it in the same place i left it.
I got a phone call at noon today, a good friend died this morning. My day is full of grieving and sad phone calls. He was just here to visit us two weeks ago on his way from IA to CA. He had just started school in S.F. and was found dead by his roommate. That's all I really know.
rationalist and WonderK: you are not alone in thinking that you are being mis-utilized (did I just invent a word?) at work. I, too, have similar thoughts from time to time.
However, right now I'm drinking the kool-aid and think that doing CA will make me a better designer in the end (yes, the merits of doing CA have been discussed a lot here, and I don't doubt it will be a good experience for me.) However, I secretly hate it when those in the office who work on glamorous design presentations get applauded by the principals while I trudge along in the corner, buried under a mountain of submittals.
I'm also reminded of a [url]thread a few months ago[/url] that knocks me down a few pegs when my head gets too big.
I find myself in a similar boat. I'm the guy in the office who knows AutoCAD backwards and blindfolded, I know how to put together a solid set of construction documents, and I know how to talk to contractors. So guess what I end up doing 99% of the time? Living in Gin, AutoCAD/CD/CA monkey at your service.
Meanwhile, there's a guy who knows 3D Studio like the back of his hand, and does amazing renderings and presentations -- the type of stuff I'd like to do much more of. And of course, Render Monkey desperately wants more experience with construction documents and construction administration.
We're only a 12-person firm, so you'd think there'd be many opportunities for cross-pollination, but we're more pigeonholed here than I've seen at any mega-corporate firm.
The irony, of course, is that I'm the only one in the office well-versed in all the Adobe programs so that when it comes time to do something that looks good for a client, I always get a piece of it. Whether the task falls to me entirely or I end up sitting someone down for a quick tutorial (even though I've given at least 2 lunch 'n learns on it) remains to be seen. I am glad that I get to work on these things - Illustrator is a welcome break from code - but then it ends up looking like I am a scatterbrain and I fall behind in my other tasks, and then it's like, "oh dubK, you should really just stick to doing mind-numbing tasks 1,2, and 3, we don't want you to get stressed out...".
I've often wondered if I didn't suffer from some obsessive need to have a hand in every phase of every project I work on.....so I've tried to look at it as a good thing, thinking, 'it's ok to relinquish this responsibility to them, they can handle it, and I can't do it all'.....but if at the end of the day, people come yelling at you when something goes wrong, I don't feel that it is unreasonable to try to stay on top of things.
In any case, I'm handling the situation as I usually do.....with humor in a way that gets my point across but distracts everyone enough so that they aren't offended. Eh. Repeat after me.....only a few more months....
I remember somebody once saying, "Whatever you do, don't become good at CAD. If you do, that's all you'll ever do." Once I get my M.Arch. degree, I almost think it would be a good idea for me to find a position at a firm that does not use AutoCAD. Then maybe I wouldn't get pigeonholed as a CAD monkey, and I might actually be able to do something else. Like, say, designing buildings.
In other news, for the past two weeks I've been struggling to get over a nasty cold. All last week I was coughing and hacking nonstop. But yesterday it seemed like it was finally clearing up.... Then I woke up this morning feeling like I had been run over by a dump truck, and I haven't improved. Has anybody ever gotten two colds back-to-back? That's certainly what this feels like.
Strawbeary, I'm so sorry to hear about your friend. What a shock and a sad sad thing - his poor family, god how awful.
I'm finally done with the set of CD's I've been working on, so I'm off to have a rum toddy (still a slight cold - LiG, my girlfriend had a cold that lingered for three weeks. mine hit hard and so far fast - I took a ton of Zicam tablets Monday and honestly think it helped) and maybe even watch a movie!
Wow Strawbeary. My bad day has paled in comparison (which of course won't stop me complaining about it, but definitely puts it in perspective).
The problem with my firm is that about half a dozen people there know all the programs pretty well.... it's just that not all of them know what to DO with the programs. Just because you know illustrator doesn't mean you know how to make a layout look nice, or which font to choose, or any of that. But my boss won't ever figure that out, because like DCA's firm, he's put us all into these little pigeon holes that make him comfortable.
sorry strawbeary. hope you learn more. a friend of mine died right after high school and we never really knew what happened. that still haunts me. sucks that he was just getting started in a life he was getting to choose, but good you got to see him so recently.
i got a message from my dad last night that i just picked up this morning. i'm afraid to call him back because i think he's going to tell me that my grandfather died.
on the work front, i find that i'm buried in submittals, ca, AND asked to do design and presentation work. the hell of it is that i feel guilty if i don't turn the submittals and construction questions around fast enough so i always prioritize those and design - what i want to be doing - always takes the back seat. maybe i need therapy.
rationalist, the work atmosphere that you're describing reminds me exactly of a firm I used to work for... and quit after 3 months. You say "I shouldn't expect them to care what I'm interested in"--but that's exactly wrong--you SHOULD expect them to care what you're interested in, and they should care what you're interested in, because that benefits both them and you. It is KEY to good management that you learn what your employers are good/bad at, and are interested in/not interested in, and you use all of those things to find the best combination of happy employee and happy employer. Your firm is an anomaly of terrible management, from everything you've described on this website, over and over again. I cannot stress this enough. It is not good for your company if you are burned out and hate every minute of your job. It is in their best interest to make sure you get a well-rounded and varied experience, that plays to both your strengths and your interests. If they are not looking at you as a human being, then they don't know how to manage, point blank. It is not ok, nor is it typical firm management, to have TWO employees sitting there all day wishing they could do each others' work, and hating doing the work they're given. Neither of you are going to be effective employees for the company. I know I go on about this a lot but I'm serious, it's not just YOU, it really IS a bad company (or it sounds like it from your description, given that I know nothing else about this place.)
we called his gramma to learn more, he died by falling out of bed, the top bunk in a dorm room. he was never even suposd to be in that type of student housing, got stuck there. we are in total shock. the world has lost a beautiful, talented, intelligent person. it doesn't make any sense. yes, i'm glad we got to see him so recently.
ok, update in the saga of bad management: I asked the office manager-type principal today how long I'd be on this project for. Nobody had given me any hints at whethere I'd do this for a week or three months, or what, and I decided I wanted an answer now. Somehow the conversation turned into one that really should've been had behind closed doors.... My boss ended up saying how great I'm doing at this, how she knows it's hard when you're good at one thing but want to do something else (where I interjected "But I'm good at the other stuff, too"), and how if I look around me, I'm the one of my colleagues with the most experience, so they need me on this.
Now I feel bad for asking anything about it, because I don't think that the people around me needed to hear that negative comparison. I've just made them feel worse about their situations, while not really making me feel much better about my own. Shit.
bunk beds should be illegal. i always said that after sleeping and falling from one of them when i was 14 y.o in a youth camp. i was lucky. i have always opted for downstairs since.
what a sad story.
on a positive note, my friend in the hospital is doing better than ever for the time being and he is able to get up on his own and sit on a chair. yesterday we talked several hours in his room about all kinds of stuff.
Wow, Orhan, that is an unexpected bit of good news about your friend!! And I want to hear how the potential new office space situation looks, please. Though you'll miss those guys at Aamco.
rationalist, your boss put a huge foot in her mouth and proved what a horrid HR and management person she is. Don't let it get you down, your coworkers see it from your perspective and shouldn't be upset with you over her poor skills. Hang on...just a few more months....
I heard a sad story on NPR this afternoon about a guy whose marriage was tested because after they graduated and got married he couldn't' find a job and she was the breadwinner...the guy had an architecture degree...ugh.
I guess i should feel blessed here today hacking away with my lingering cold. Working away on a pro-bono project, which I really don't have time for. It was just to good to turn away and it will most likely lead to other work. Besides that it is a good thing for our community and also on a larger scale for our region.
It involves taking an old 1920's Diner and turning it into a Tourist Vsitors Center and building a seperate building to house public bathrooms. Oh ya the diner is mint on the inside and tired on the outside, so we have our work cut out making this litle dusty gem a sparkling diamond.
You think I could get a bunch of archinector's to charrette this project for me and come up with something by morning?
i don't think we are moving anywhere soon. i saw some spaces yesterday in one of those so called 'creative spaces' compaunds, where landlocked rooms share common ceiling and the whole place feels like a stupid art factory maze (there are a lot of art places like this in los angeles). they were kind of depressing and guess what, more expensive and not nearly as nice and independent.
we have decided to hang on to this space and i just have to get more jobs to break even with the home and business expenses.
staying in business and still try to do whats worth to you is really tough in los angeles and probably everywhere else, but it does keep you going at it, if that's important to you.
it use to be considered you've made it, if you get published in some place and you'd get more clients. these days it's not even a big deal if one of thousand magazines puts your project on the cover because it doesn't take much effort to get published around. it is about running into people who has money to spend improving their homes, if you are limited to residential work. there are ten times the people these days, who are trying to survive in the same market, and not to mention herds of home owners who think they themselves are great designers.
as much as i try to make a living in residential design business, i am unfortunetly also an 'anti too much design' kind of designer who doesn't attract those 'design me the highest end' type of clients who make residential architects life affordable and easier by wanting to see five different cabinet door alternatives drawn on silk paper so their's is hipper than the jonses and they have seen all the possibilities.
there are clients who think like i do, but since they don't want too much embellishment they have limited budgets and quick to arrive a decision following your lead. nice but not profitable.
but enough rant.
i have survived this far and doesn't look like i am going to give up anything and open a dry cleaning busines like mr. park, who gave up medical doctoring in korea to come here and send his kids to great medical schools in so cal. he just drinks too much for some reason.
here is hypocritical statement of the day;
i wish that telephone rang today and somebody offered me 75K to do a tudor house on the hills. but why those people would call 'me' is another issue.
greatest thing i saw today was gross point library work by the archinect greats. amazing grace and cause. me and bora are gonna do a version too.
who knows what's next? archinect collaborative llc? nationwide one stop architectural works with higly qualified regional teams with international support? no job too small or big or far or out of expertise?
hell yeah.
Thread Central
i have not seen a snowplow. but i could walk home if i had to.
ok, i got the teeth flossed...feeling much better now.
i did walk home...but no blizzard here. there's many reasons that i don't have a car but one of the biggest is how much it makes me dislike winter when i have to drive in all that shit.
i dislike pc's too but have bounced back & forth between windows (work) & mac (home) for so long that i hardly notice any difference. wow...that must be what it feels like to be bilingual. i need to start working on my norwegian again. the harder transition for me was using autocad (maybe version 2000 or 2002) before grad school, then not touching it for two years (had a part time job but we used microstation) and by the time i came back and picked it up again in version 2004 (or maybe 2006...i'm not even sure which version i'm using now) it seemed like alot had changed. now all the drawing sheets are set up on tabs within in a single file and there's a bunch of 3d/parametric modeling elements, etc. i'm not sure if these are even necessarily new things or shit was just different than the way we used to work at my old firm like four years...either way it definitely messed with my head for a while. trouble was...i'd think i'd know how to do something, but would only have a vague recollection...and then it might not even be there. it really felt worse than starting from scratch.
and i'm also a bit tired of a new discussion every other week about architects needing more money. if all the people who actually did the heavy bitching about needing to be paid more would just leave the profession then it would probably eliminate enough of our competition that we'd actually be in demand...and able to charge more appropriately.
but enough of that...i think i've got some pro bono work to do for some very rich people somewhere...i'm practically a superhero.
going to go check out the snow flakes of my dreams....or is that just
computer strain on the eyes....
You ARE a superhero, puddles - a super-duper-hero.
Finally finished the last wall section and off to bed. I feel like crap! But the satisfaction of getting it all done is so good.
WonderK, SuperBeatledud, et al from DAAP: there is a song called "The Dap Walk" by Ernie and the Top Notes from 1972 that you must hear. Very funk.
G'night all.
lars, I too agree that architects are monetarily undervalued by society. However, whining about being "poor" does nothing to raise our stature.
I haven't had a Blizzard since 12/28/06. It was in Charlotte. I had the one with coconut and pineapple.
no snow here either. we are lately in the late teens (celcius; sorry i forget what that is in farenheit) most days, and is starting to get sweater is enough warm already. love it, cuz i grew up in climate same as siberia. but i hate that it is already spring. have a dissertation due this summer and that is coming on way too fast. yikes.
money and architecture? i don't know. bitch if you want to, I don't mind. me i am pretty happy with most every aspect of my life right now and would not change a damn thing...love my work, and hopefully someday i will make lots of money at it. or i won't. either way is pretty much ok with me as long as i can still do architecture and keep my family fed, healthy and together.
Money is overrated. I would rather spend my life either in debt or breaking even, but happy, than extremely wealthy and working like a dog, etc. You have to be happy with where you are instead of always thinking you won't be happy until you get more of this or that....life is a finite operation, here. You can't take it with you.
But perhaps that is just me.
myriam
i hear what you're saying..i haven't really read all that much in the
architects/money threads. and i realize that it doesn't promote the
profession..and that there are people out there far less fortunate than
us.
but i can also understand how someone coming out of grad school
with 100k of debt would feel surprised/disenchanted getting out into
the world and realizing the financial situation they're in. i feel as
though architecture school should deal a bit more with the pragmatic
sides of architecture..maybe some required business courses? maybe
a bit less focus on design? i loved that school wasn't about that..and
was all about experimentation and drawing/modelling..but what i
would've given to know what a long row there was to hoe.
with that said..it has never been about money for me. i enjoy working
for the work and don't work at places that would pay me more just
so i have more money. it'd just be nice if one oculd do good work and
get a reasonable amount of money for it.
i guess that should be in relation to other design fields/consultants
fees etc.
larslarson- regarding the school debt issue, i agree. but i also feel that schools have some responsibility here too as they are generally graduating more people than are needed in the profession. of course, it's just a money grab for them to enroll more students so what's to stop them...even if a prospective student is broke, they'll help get the loans.
is it any wonder that we now have an awkward & cumbersome "intern development program" the requires completion before sitting for the licensing exams when our universities have effectively relinquished their role as "gate keepers" to our distinguished profession?
oh god, get me out of here. My bosses KNOW I've been taking graphic design classes. They KNOW it's something I'm interested in. Still, they insist on making me review shop drawings for weeks on end, while someone else in the office gets to do all of the graphic work because she's a good photographer.... while they hire an outside professional to shoot all of their buildings. WTF?! If they really love her so much, give her the opportunity to use her photography knowledge, don't make her stumble through graphic design and say stupid things about font choice when you HAVE someone who's educated in graphic design right here! I'm insulted that they won't even let me try. They have never, once, let me do something graphic from scratch. They only let me update what people have done in the past, and it is driving me absolutely nuts. I don't know if I can wait until grad school acceptances. I just need out.
on money- yes, I agree that schools being more stringent would do a world of good. If it were harder to hire workers, there's a good chance they'd value us a bit more.
Nevermind. Sorry to let that stuff out here. I'm just being stupid- they don't care what I want to do, and it'd be stupid to expect them to.
rationalist, i sense that you're frustrated in general today (maybe not only with the situation described above?) if it were me, i'd buy a bunch of cds or books during lunch. what's your feel-good magic-bullet?
rationalist, that's a huge purpose for TC's existence - to let it all out here.
Steven- nah, the other thing wasn't actually frustrating, just rushed. None of the criticism there hurt at all actually, because it all stemmed from you guys knowing the building and what you wanted to convey better than I do, which is inevitable in that situation.
It's really just work. I'm sitting here doing the most boring, tedious, mind-numbing work in the office, which I get assigned because I'm supposedly sooooo good, while less-skilled people get to do all the exciting, interesting work. It's something that's been bugging me for a while- it seems like I would have a much better job if I were less skilled, if I didn't try to learn everything I can, and that just pisses me off. It's completely contrary to everything our society claims to value. If you do good work, you should be rewarded for it. If you do shitty work, you should be fired for it. But somehow, those who do good work are getting punished, and those who don't know how to do that work we're getting punished with because they've never tried to learn it, are getting rewarded! It just kills me, and I don't know if it's this office, or this profession, or what, but it's driving me nuts because it makes me feel like it'll always be this way, because I can't just un-learn the things I've learned, so I'll be repeatedly stuck with them.
ok, [/rant]. Hopefully. I'll try to calm down. And yes, lunch hour will be spent in a quiet place with a good book, so that hopefully by the time I come back I can take this insult with dignity.
hmmm...let it all out huh. okay. perhaps TC can help me with me neighbor problem. they refuse to lock the doors to ALL common areas; front door, back door, garage door. they also do not turn off common area lights, that are on our panel - so we pay for all that lectricity. we've talked to them directly, sat down with the landlord and the tenant and still no regard for our safety or our concerns regarding our electric bill. i have half a mind to shit on their stair, but that might not solve anything. any clues with asshole neighbors?
beta- you are no longer in crime ridden jersey, but 'everybody is nice and they don't lock doors in canada either' Minnesota.
So has anything disappeared yet? does this dispute explain the military hardware fetish of a few days ago?
regarding the lights in the hall, your landlord should be paying for the common area lights. If not, then start flipping the circuit breaker off when you don't need the lights on out there.
I agree with treekiller on the circuit breaker comment. You shouldn't be paying for those lights.
Also, rationalist, I am basically in the exact same situation as you. I am apparently so skilled that I "get" to do code reviews and drawing reviews. I have been letting myself get distracted more and more lately in an effort to avoid poking my eye out with a stick.
That's exactly it. Do you think they know that this work makes us want to commit hara-kiri at our desks, or that they really believe that it's interesting work? The thing that's even worse is that the girl who sits back-to-back with me really, really wants to learn about every aspect of the projects, but is stuck doing 3D models and presentation boards all day, while I'd kill for her job but am stuck with shop drawings. We've both talked to the 'office manager/human resources' type principal about this, and been told all of the right things, but then nothing changes.
killa, the problem is two-fold; if i disable the lights i increase the safety issues and with this rapist in the area still unaccounted for, that's a big concern and if keep believing that mn nice routine a wouldn't feel the need to bang on my neighbors door at 130 am to lock the door. what i did last night was put post-its on the door an d lights reminding them to lock and turn off, and what did i find when i got home? yep front door unlocked all day long and post it in the same place i left it.
I got a phone call at noon today, a good friend died this morning. My day is full of grieving and sad phone calls. He was just here to visit us two weeks ago on his way from IA to CA. He had just started school in S.F. and was found dead by his roommate. That's all I really know.
sad.
jesus Strawbeary, that's awful. I'm sorry.
sorry to hear that, Strawbeary.
So sorry to hear that, Strawbeary. :(
rationalist and WonderK: you are not alone in thinking that you are being mis-utilized (did I just invent a word?) at work. I, too, have similar thoughts from time to time.
However, right now I'm drinking the kool-aid and think that doing CA will make me a better designer in the end (yes, the merits of doing CA have been discussed a lot here, and I don't doubt it will be a good experience for me.) However, I secretly hate it when those in the office who work on glamorous design presentations get applauded by the principals while I trudge along in the corner, buried under a mountain of submittals.
I'm also reminded of a [url]thread a few months ago[/url] that knocks me down a few pegs when my head gets too big.
er...
I'm also reminded of a thread from a few months ago that knocks me down a few pegs when my head gets too big.
I find myself in a similar boat. I'm the guy in the office who knows AutoCAD backwards and blindfolded, I know how to put together a solid set of construction documents, and I know how to talk to contractors. So guess what I end up doing 99% of the time? Living in Gin, AutoCAD/CD/CA monkey at your service.
Meanwhile, there's a guy who knows 3D Studio like the back of his hand, and does amazing renderings and presentations -- the type of stuff I'd like to do much more of. And of course, Render Monkey desperately wants more experience with construction documents and construction administration.
We're only a 12-person firm, so you'd think there'd be many opportunities for cross-pollination, but we're more pigeonholed here than I've seen at any mega-corporate firm.
The irony, of course, is that I'm the only one in the office well-versed in all the Adobe programs so that when it comes time to do something that looks good for a client, I always get a piece of it. Whether the task falls to me entirely or I end up sitting someone down for a quick tutorial (even though I've given at least 2 lunch 'n learns on it) remains to be seen. I am glad that I get to work on these things - Illustrator is a welcome break from code - but then it ends up looking like I am a scatterbrain and I fall behind in my other tasks, and then it's like, "oh dubK, you should really just stick to doing mind-numbing tasks 1,2, and 3, we don't want you to get stressed out...".
I've often wondered if I didn't suffer from some obsessive need to have a hand in every phase of every project I work on.....so I've tried to look at it as a good thing, thinking, 'it's ok to relinquish this responsibility to them, they can handle it, and I can't do it all'.....but if at the end of the day, people come yelling at you when something goes wrong, I don't feel that it is unreasonable to try to stay on top of things.
In any case, I'm handling the situation as I usually do.....with humor in a way that gets my point across but distracts everyone enough so that they aren't offended. Eh. Repeat after me.....only a few more months....
Gosh, it looks like we're all living the dream, aren't we? :) Thank the archinecture gods for the Thread Central Support Group.....
I remember somebody once saying, "Whatever you do, don't become good at CAD. If you do, that's all you'll ever do." Once I get my M.Arch. degree, I almost think it would be a good idea for me to find a position at a firm that does not use AutoCAD. Then maybe I wouldn't get pigeonholed as a CAD monkey, and I might actually be able to do something else. Like, say, designing buildings.
In other news, for the past two weeks I've been struggling to get over a nasty cold. All last week I was coughing and hacking nonstop. But yesterday it seemed like it was finally clearing up.... Then I woke up this morning feeling like I had been run over by a dump truck, and I haven't improved. Has anybody ever gotten two colds back-to-back? That's certainly what this feels like.
Strawbeary, I'm so sorry to hear about your friend. What a shock and a sad sad thing - his poor family, god how awful.
I'm finally done with the set of CD's I've been working on, so I'm off to have a rum toddy (still a slight cold - LiG, my girlfriend had a cold that lingered for three weeks. mine hit hard and so far fast - I took a ton of Zicam tablets Monday and honestly think it helped) and maybe even watch a movie!
Wow Strawbeary. My bad day has paled in comparison (which of course won't stop me complaining about it, but definitely puts it in perspective).
The problem with my firm is that about half a dozen people there know all the programs pretty well.... it's just that not all of them know what to DO with the programs. Just because you know illustrator doesn't mean you know how to make a layout look nice, or which font to choose, or any of that. But my boss won't ever figure that out, because like DCA's firm, he's put us all into these little pigeon holes that make him comfortable.
sorry strawbeary. hope you learn more. a friend of mine died right after high school and we never really knew what happened. that still haunts me. sucks that he was just getting started in a life he was getting to choose, but good you got to see him so recently.
i got a message from my dad last night that i just picked up this morning. i'm afraid to call him back because i think he's going to tell me that my grandfather died.
on the work front, i find that i'm buried in submittals, ca, AND asked to do design and presentation work. the hell of it is that i feel guilty if i don't turn the submittals and construction questions around fast enough so i always prioritize those and design - what i want to be doing - always takes the back seat. maybe i need therapy.
-sorry about your friend strawb.
-many thanks to all those who have put in the time and energy
getting the breuer info together.
i'm staying home today feeling a bit under the weather.
rationalist, the work atmosphere that you're describing reminds me exactly of a firm I used to work for... and quit after 3 months. You say "I shouldn't expect them to care what I'm interested in"--but that's exactly wrong--you SHOULD expect them to care what you're interested in, and they should care what you're interested in, because that benefits both them and you. It is KEY to good management that you learn what your employers are good/bad at, and are interested in/not interested in, and you use all of those things to find the best combination of happy employee and happy employer. Your firm is an anomaly of terrible management, from everything you've described on this website, over and over again. I cannot stress this enough. It is not good for your company if you are burned out and hate every minute of your job. It is in their best interest to make sure you get a well-rounded and varied experience, that plays to both your strengths and your interests. If they are not looking at you as a human being, then they don't know how to manage, point blank. It is not ok, nor is it typical firm management, to have TWO employees sitting there all day wishing they could do each others' work, and hating doing the work they're given. Neither of you are going to be effective employees for the company. I know I go on about this a lot but I'm serious, it's not just YOU, it really IS a bad company (or it sounds like it from your description, given that I know nothing else about this place.)
we called his gramma to learn more, he died by falling out of bed, the top bunk in a dorm room. he was never even suposd to be in that type of student housing, got stuck there. we are in total shock. the world has lost a beautiful, talented, intelligent person. it doesn't make any sense. yes, i'm glad we got to see him so recently.
count your blessings. follow your dreams.
ok, update in the saga of bad management: I asked the office manager-type principal today how long I'd be on this project for. Nobody had given me any hints at whethere I'd do this for a week or three months, or what, and I decided I wanted an answer now. Somehow the conversation turned into one that really should've been had behind closed doors.... My boss ended up saying how great I'm doing at this, how she knows it's hard when you're good at one thing but want to do something else (where I interjected "But I'm good at the other stuff, too"), and how if I look around me, I'm the one of my colleagues with the most experience, so they need me on this.
Now I feel bad for asking anything about it, because I don't think that the people around me needed to hear that negative comparison. I've just made them feel worse about their situations, while not really making me feel much better about my own. Shit.
bunk beds should be illegal. i always said that after sleeping and falling from one of them when i was 14 y.o in a youth camp. i was lucky. i have always opted for downstairs since.
what a sad story.
on a positive note, my friend in the hospital is doing better than ever for the time being and he is able to get up on his own and sit on a chair. yesterday we talked several hours in his room about all kinds of stuff.
Wow, Orhan, that is an unexpected bit of good news about your friend!! And I want to hear how the potential new office space situation looks, please. Though you'll miss those guys at Aamco.
rationalist, your boss put a huge foot in her mouth and proved what a horrid HR and management person she is. Don't let it get you down, your coworkers see it from your perspective and shouldn't be upset with you over her poor skills. Hang on...just a few more months....
I heard a sad story on NPR this afternoon about a guy whose marriage was tested because after they graduated and got married he couldn't' find a job and she was the breadwinner...the guy had an architecture degree...ugh.
I guess i should feel blessed here today hacking away with my lingering cold. Working away on a pro-bono project, which I really don't have time for. It was just to good to turn away and it will most likely lead to other work. Besides that it is a good thing for our community and also on a larger scale for our region.
It involves taking an old 1920's Diner and turning it into a Tourist Vsitors Center and building a seperate building to house public bathrooms. Oh ya the diner is mint on the inside and tired on the outside, so we have our work cut out making this litle dusty gem a sparkling diamond.
You think I could get a bunch of archinector's to charrette this project for me and come up with something by morning?
Only if you come up with a cool acronym and logo for your organization first....
wunder? logo acronym....maybe I need a famous architect?
nah, you just need a photo of Keanu Reeves!
Keanu? that totally confuses me...
Orhan, great news about your friend.
snooker - whether you have time for it or not, it sounds like a fun project...not that i'm volunteering to help, though.
strawbeary, my condolences.
i'm lost
thanks lb.
i don't think we are moving anywhere soon. i saw some spaces yesterday in one of those so called 'creative spaces' compaunds, where landlocked rooms share common ceiling and the whole place feels like a stupid art factory maze (there are a lot of art places like this in los angeles). they were kind of depressing and guess what, more expensive and not nearly as nice and independent.
we have decided to hang on to this space and i just have to get more jobs to break even with the home and business expenses.
staying in business and still try to do whats worth to you is really tough in los angeles and probably everywhere else, but it does keep you going at it, if that's important to you.
it use to be considered you've made it, if you get published in some place and you'd get more clients. these days it's not even a big deal if one of thousand magazines puts your project on the cover because it doesn't take much effort to get published around. it is about running into people who has money to spend improving their homes, if you are limited to residential work. there are ten times the people these days, who are trying to survive in the same market, and not to mention herds of home owners who think they themselves are great designers.
as much as i try to make a living in residential design business, i am unfortunetly also an 'anti too much design' kind of designer who doesn't attract those 'design me the highest end' type of clients who make residential architects life affordable and easier by wanting to see five different cabinet door alternatives drawn on silk paper so their's is hipper than the jonses and they have seen all the possibilities.
there are clients who think like i do, but since they don't want too much embellishment they have limited budgets and quick to arrive a decision following your lead. nice but not profitable.
but enough rant.
i have survived this far and doesn't look like i am going to give up anything and open a dry cleaning busines like mr. park, who gave up medical doctoring in korea to come here and send his kids to great medical schools in so cal. he just drinks too much for some reason.
here is hypocritical statement of the day;
i wish that telephone rang today and somebody offered me 75K to do a tudor house on the hills. but why those people would call 'me' is another issue.
greatest thing i saw today was gross point library work by the archinect greats. amazing grace and cause. me and bora are gonna do a version too.
who knows what's next? archinect collaborative llc? nationwide one stop architectural works with higly qualified regional teams with international support? no job too small or big or far or out of expertise?
hell yeah.
february 12 is TC's first anniversary.
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