I have been called only one time for Jury Duty. Turned out one of the lawyers had the same name as a paralegal who worked on my wifes immigration papers. So I said, he may be the same person as I know he left the firm which represented us in our imigration hearings.

Well a attorney hears that guess there scarred of anyone involve in immigration hearings and well the guy with the same name it was the clincher.

sir your are dismissed.

j'accuse. monsieur, j'accuse!!!

So here I am it’s Saturday night, just got done with my accounting and billing -good month I may say-
I had a very busy week between working on tight deadlines and taking care of my one month old son during the night hours, I am completely exhausted. I can believe it’s already April, times is going by so fast lately. I had two interested experiences this weeks: one dealing with how important those meeting minutes that we all hate to write but are crucially important, truly saved my ass.
The other experience is somewhat related to the first, about a year ago I was selected to design this 18k interior space for a Christian Youth Group, There was another architect interviewed for the job, he was part of the church congregation, worked for a firm that has designed several churches in the area, thinning he has the project in the bag, he was quite arrogant in the interview from what I am told, needless to say, he was not selected for the project, called me after he got the rejection letter, extremely upset about the outcome and felt that the project would have been better served if he was the designer, and that the selection committee had made an atrocious mistake. This fiasco blew over after the COO of the church got involved. Well for the past 8 month a design had being approved, a successful capital campaign was organized and the funs are allocated for the project, we will be moving into the CD phase within the next couple of weeks.
Early last week I get a call from this architect, telling me that he had been fired from his present job and wanted to meet with me to see if he could help with the church project in my studio, He came over, was very complementary of our design for the space, has concerns about the cost and use of appropriate materials, and after a whole morning of me hearing how upset he was not to be working on this project, he left, called me the next day with some code concerns he was thinking about.
This guy is twice my age, has worked in the field for more that 25 years, I am a young punk, just trying to find my way in the world, working my ass off to do something I am proud of.
Putting my personal feelings aside, I have being as nice and professional as I can with this guy, I even gave him a lead on a project which I am to busy to take on, in our last phone conversation (which by the way I had to lie) and told him I had a meeting to go so I could get of the phone, he mentioned he will be watching me every step of the way, “because God has given him that duty over his church”.

I am sorry about rambling on about all of this, but I have never; in my short carrier encounter anything like this- Have any of you?

I apologize, I didn’t want to create a new thread just for my little challenge here, I though thread central; where the locals tent to frequent could give me a place at least to vent my frustration-
Thanks every one I feel better already.
Ciao a tutti

southpole - I have never seen a hostile situation like you described, but I have seen something similar that seemed to work out for the best:

One firm had a member of the client's community on-staff; he worked for the firm long before the project was ever conceived. While that staff member wasn't integral to every part of the project, the firm occasionally asked him to make presentations to the client and assure them that everything was going smoothly. It was great for PR.

Perhaps there is a way for you to organize - or encourage the organization of - a design review committee (or finish selection committee, or something more creative) within the congregation. Allow your acquaintance to be part of the process on behalf of the community. You may be able to turn his negative energy into something positive.

never met anyone doing architecture for god before. wonder what brunneleschi was like when doing his thing in florence...

can't tell him to bugger off ? sounds like he is off his meds...

you cats @ thread central are the best and brad pitt can only wish to be among such an elite group of seasoned architects.
when i broke the news here that bp joined archinect, you guys went on your business and start discussing something else after a few posts mentioning his name in usual lower keys.
so, each archinect elite in thread central gets the most expensive sturfuck coffee from me when i see you guys in the future. well dissing done well...

yum yum, sturfuck coffee.

There are sailboats on the Potomac River today. How delightful!


In Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles far and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's
spring
and
the

goat-footed

balloonMan whistles
far
and
wee

ee cummings

southpole:

I have never been in your situation but I have worked with a lot of church committees. Almost always there is an artchitect on the committee who feels very personally involved in the process and feels they need to protect their congregation/guide the process/be involved in every bit of information etc. I have had success being very solicitous and welcoming to those architects, honestly listening and considering their input. I also give them "special" treament like calling them personally when we are about to give a big presentation and asking advice etc.

As for hiring this guy, it sounds like you don't want to/can't, but it shouldn't hurt to make him feel very included. If it does get to be a problem, though, talk to the head of the committee or even the pastor(or whatever) of the church - be honest that you feel this guy might be taking the job a little too personally and you as record architect need to be trusted by the committee and have freedom to do work without the other guy's ego getting in the way. Hopfeully it won't get to that point.

Basically a lot of churches are very careful and caring about member's personal feelings, and there should be a pretty good level of understanding on everyone's part. Good luck.

lb is wise as usual. Your predicament is tough, southpole, but one we can learn from. Thanks for sharing.

lb is very wise indeed. my initial response which i didnt post, (like writing the email and not hitting the send button) would be to call the church and tell them to reign in mr.doesntwannabeleftoutofthepicture or get billed for any time of yours he wastes. and bill it as additional services under psychological counselling...

nice. in the future, don't hold back mr. retro.

happy 2001

this just in from the absolutely stupid development idea department...dateline albucrackee. the popular and independent guild cinema is being forced to close as their landlord has sold out from under them to a developer that will build live/work housing and(here's the stupid part)an atomic museum!!!now the idea of the housing and the museum aint so bad except that this in one of the only areas of albucrackee that already has an "urban feel" and there already exists an area for museums that are situated within walking distance to one another. plus theres an atomic museum in los alamos and one on the freakin air force base!!! way to go morons...

the trick for someone will be to get the 1000th post to this thread with their 1000th post. not me though as i will hit 3000 soon. hooray for me.

i fucked up...trying to hijack gehry's bunch... poligize.
then again i really thought 2001 is a better look than 2000.

Thanks to those of you (DCA, Jump LB & Vado) that shared some good insight into my predicament, I was able to sit on this all weekend and after reading you guys counsel, I am going to push forward with leaving my doors open to this gentlemen and extend a sincere hand for him to participate in the process, I don’t know exactly how or when, but that will come to me as things gel-out. I will make it clear to him that we are both working for the same goal and I can do anything about the past.
I think bringing him into our studio and ask his help with the planning of future presentations to the congregation, tour of the work in progress, maybe ask him to designs some small elements of the project essentially given him some small ownership
For him to spread the “good word” about the project-
It will take some additional effort on my part- but I always say what goes around comes around eventually.
Props to u-all!
Quoting Abra - glad to be “among such an elite group of seasoned architects”

Good for you, southpole. It's usually best to take the high road, even if it means spending a little extra effort. Who knows - this guy may turn out to be your best cheerleader once he understands your design intent and project objectives. This will be a true test of your management abilities - he will probably have a better attitude if he doesn't KNOW he is being managed :)

Good luck, southpole.

Steven, I am so happy to see you posting this morning after the midwest storms last night! That tornado siren chills me deep, I'm terrified of tornados and as soon as the power went out last night we all huddled in my son's (thankfully sound asleep) room in the middle of the house waiting for things to quiet down. Had a huge tree blocking our street this morning and we lost a downspout and a bunch of branches, but nothing else.

Also, I was surprised to hear a highrise downtown lost window glass in floors 20-32 due to either high winds or - as some eyewitnesses claim - a tornado touchdown. I was sitting in the dark last night wishing I lived in a highrise condo because as far as I know tornados don't typically hit highrises, right? Not in a "they only hit trailer parks" kinda way, but it seems like there might be something about a concentration of vertical masses in a downtown area that would prevent tornados from forming. I wonder.

You know, I love storms but tornados just add a level of excitement I'm not so crazy about.

Someone--not an architect or engineer of any kind--recently told me that the reason Chicago doesn't experience tornados is due to the concentration of vertical buildings which somehow break up the wind patterns. I had thought the air masses from the lake might be the cause somehow, but her idea made me curious. It would bear researching.

i always heard that heat concentration - a sort of heat bubble - and not tall buildings/wind patterns was what kept tornados from entering central cities. but i don't really know. that was hearsay.

MIAMI - Monday, May 12, 1997

not so urban, though, compared to Chicago, NYC etc.
that picture is deceiving -
all around that very small core of taller bldgs is sprawl and water...

i'm no meteorologist, not even sure if I spelled it right...my .0002$

Tornados are scary, the first time I heard those sirens go off I was driving around town, and didn’t have a clue what I needed to do. I was a newbie living under this phenomenon, last Friday we had a few sightings of small tornados touching ground a few miles outside of town, it rained all weekend here, and those nasty Midwest winds. I’ve never experienced horizontal rain until living here.

I remember Salt lake City had a Tornado hit down town in the late 90’s several glass panels from the Detal center were gone, and tress everywhere-

-LB glad you are O.K. Midwest thunder storms are a beautiful sight- but they can turn to a scary situation in no time-

There are a number of issues that can disperse a tornado. Generally the creation of a tornado is when there is a large warm spot in a cell with a small cool downdraft immediately behind it, which creates a hook, and eventually a tornado. Several factors can occur in cities such as geography, heat, and ofcourse a high consentration of tall buildings that block and filter the wind, making it very difficult for tornados to stay formed. But just because you're in a high rise doesn't mean that you are safe, especially if you are the only tall building around...and even in cities, straight line winds can still blow out windows and such which can be just as dangerous.

and some chicken soup for myriam:

glad you're all ok. I'm kind of wondering about my grandma though (her husband can go to hell though) out in the middle of Iowa...

Anyhoo, I just posted something in the news section, and it disappeared! Wierd. Hope someone just took it to fix my crappy link and it'll be up soon, cause I thought the archinect population would want to know, but it wouldn't warrent a whole discussion on it.

Thanks, AP! That looks delicious! I have Progresso chicken noodle for lunch today. Wish I didn't have to be dealing with contractor screw-ups, though. Diplomacy requires a very clear head.

i didn't want to complain too much before so i've waited until now: checking out the list of current threads, i'm glad things are back to normal.

ACK! Somehow archinect has defaulted to "Notify me when someone replies to this post" and has been flooding me with emails! So I'm basically just posting so that it will process my request NOT to notify me anymore...

Oh yeah, and the news post ended up just fine. I went this weekend to the dedication of the addition to Watt Hall at USC/memorial to former Dean Robert Timme. In addition to being motivated by all the painfully thin, beautiful girls I saw there, I was glad to hear that the selection committee has narrowed the field of potential Deans to four people, and is scheduling interviews! They wouldn't tell us WHO though, grrrrr.

myriam,
that is a hearty and lasting food and inexpensive too.
here is my interpretation of AP's soup;
large pot
1 whole chicken
little olive oil (oo burns fast so be careful and add the vegies quick and stir)
1 med onion diced or julieanned (i prefer the latter for heartyness feel)
as much celery diced
as much carrots (you can get creative with carrot chops, diced,sliced, triangulated, chefs say triangulated carrot taste better..?..)
4-5 cups of water (bottled water)
1/4 cup of rice or red lentils or cup of small pasta.
salt and pepper to taste.
lemon

sautee vegitables until onions are translucent.
put the washed chicken in the same pot and add water to half chicken level, salt, pepper etc. (you can add some herbs too like dried greek oregano) bring to boil and cover and turn down to low simmer.
40 minutes later add rice or lentils and/or 1 small diced potato.
20 minutes later add the pasta.
total cook time 1 hour 15 minutes.
turn the heat off and let it set for about 15 min.
serve it just like AP picture.
lemon squeeze, bread, cracker whatever. lasts a while and taste great next couple of days.
cost +,- $10 lets say you eat it 3 times = 3.33 per meal. invite friend.
total prep time 15 min. freezable in tupperware.

* you might already know this recepie. its really worth it. if you gonna eat chicken soup (turks 'drink' soup) might as well you know what chicken goes in it...

i agree abra. cooking it yourself is better tasting, better for you, and cheaper.

i love chicken. we often buy a whole chicken. roast it one night, shread the rest some for enchiladas the next [we have plenty of enchilada left overs too], and take the chicken bones and make a broth to use for a soup base on the third.

wow, that sounds excellent, and like something I could actually make! ...I am an awful cook, which is sad because I love food. But I might actually try this. Thanks!!

My dad has this special soup he makes when his throat hurts--that and pb and j sandwiches were the only things he made me growing up--that makes it feel way better. Really it's just beef broth and lemon but I love it. Perhaps I should make something tonight.

yeah, one way to save a lot of money for those that don't have HIGH SALARIES is to cook more. my wife and i rarely eat out and save a ton of money.

Growing up in what we considered the tail end of the tornado belt (north Alabama), nasty storms were common early spring and late fall. A tornado hit my hometown in '89 detroying a huge commericial strip, skipped over a ridge and decimated a large residential neighborhood.

Two stories I tell when talking about tornadoes are from first person accounts of two friends of mine.

One friend was in his house with his mom and little brother. They were hiding in a closet towards the middle of his house. he watched through the slats in the door, his roof, his front wall and first floor stair case get sucked into the sky.

Another friend was in the basement with his family when the power went off. He went up stairs to get a flashlight from the kitchen drawer. As he's opening the drawer his ears popped. Not a second, the pressure caused every pane of glass in the house to explode. He grabbed the flashlight and made it downstairs without harm.

They say if you are close enough a tornado sounds like a freight train. I've always always always been conscious of that little tid bit - because by then - if you hear that sound - if you aren't safe - you have only a few moments before certain doom.

i use to cook a lot. nowdays i became a bit of short order cook churning out complex food without thinking about the basics of the particular dish and method to cook, but just get it done. by the time the food is done the kitchen is clean all utensil and mixing bowls are washed dried chaina stacked for service, lemons sliced, bread ready and cold dishes on table. i don't make green salads or sweets. but roasting, braising, frying, stewing, rice varieties, soups, grill, sautees, sauces, seafood. did i say fillo dough based variations..? like, i am no cooking conniseur but few dishes in each category and process and from different cuisines of the world. i love the pot roast i learned in america and good at roasting turkey and making gravy, crispy hash browns, bacon, breakfast and italian sousages, i eat pork. roasted carnitas are delicious but i don't roast carnitas anymore since there is a mexican deli where i can get it already done but not dried out and seasoned well with mexican oregano to make your own tacos and borritos or just as carnitas plate. i prefer refried beans over black beans.

feeding people good food is a great way of giving back. these days though it is just me and tina and the dogs. she is a great ohio cook with knowledge of steak bbq's and has a special touch with sandwiches and burgers. meat and potato at its best. great salads.
only times food doesn't turn out good is when there is a family fight right after max temperature is reached in the process. if past that point, there is no time to recover and final steps are neglected. make sure there is no yelling and screaming after the boiling point...
that is the residential rule. in commercial kitchens however, yelling and screaming is a necessary ingredient and without it, the food you ordered is a boring pile of ummm... food...

if it was 'my own private architecture school', i would put cooking out there as an elective for many reasons.

Interesting!

I bake quite well, and enjoy it tremendously, but cooking has always been a source of major frustration to me. I simply do not know enough of the basics and things that everyone says are the simplest of tasks trip me up and leave me red in the face and with a pounding headache. It takes me hours just to chop vegetables. Quickly the pace of the food outpaces me and I feel frantic and anxious. I miss obvious steps and let things sit too long while I make decisions over whether they are done or not.

I grew up with a mother who yelled and chased us out of the kitchen if we dared interrupt her cooking space and consequently I know next to nothing about the entire process.

A cooking class would be appreciated. Sometimes I think I am too old to learn. My last two boyfriends have been wonderful cooks. This is good because I love to wash dishes and clean up! Plus I make sweet breakfast things that wake them up with baking morning smells. It's a good trade-off I think.

Does this Gutter Image say: "Brad y Vado forever"?

Growing up in the old country cooking is a part of life, sometime spontaneously wonderful, there is so much parallel between architecture and food, it’s all about those small moves that trick the pallet and mind.
I love going home after a long day stopping by the market and getting a few fresh ingredients for diner, Sundays are my cooking day- usually lots of people at my house good simple food and lots of laughs.
lots request lately for my special gnocchi con pesto-

tonight, I make seared tuna on salad for my woman. It's actually quite easy. the hardest part is finding good tuna steaks...


season tuna (easy method: use Chef Paul's seafood seasoning)
*optional - coat steaks in sesame seeds

heat oil in skillet on medium/high
sear each side for +/- 60 seconds.

slice and add to salad. or forget the salad and serve them as steaks with whatever sides you want.

easy and delicious.

myriam

i think the key is keeping it simple at first and then building on that knowledge. if you keep at it, you'll get better and feel more comfortable with it. i'm not speaking from my experience but my wife's. i'm just the sous chef around my house. i've seen how her knowledge and ability has grown over the years. she is an amazing cook now and can make wonderful dishes from nothing.

yeah, cooking classes help too. i bought her 6 credits at a local cooking school for her birthday. she is so excited, and so am i, as i will reap all the benefit of it.

myriam,

i think your mom scared you off a little bit. maybe she thought you'd end up as a housemaker and she didn't want that for you or she didn't want anybody to mess with her cooking for she is a great cook.
like in my sisters' kitchen, i am only allowed to clean the dust from the table where the eating will take place. i don't get offended because its a great learning experience since they want me to watch only and learn from their ways as they talk about each process and make cross reference to a certain dish they learned from granma and other elderly or particular memory from a childhood lunch we used to like and like.

anyway, none of that means anything unless you get the hang of making your favorite dishes. nobody needs to know all about every page of the cooking. few good dishes are enough and you'd be a great pertner to someone who can cook well and willingly and you like their taste and they like you do the dishes (not allthe time though). it is all about that kind of survival in family. and, there are some really good take outs too, like chutneys on pico where i stop once every two weeks to get dinner.
gourmet's delite, pizza tonite... in fact with extra cheese and italic sausages and thin crust with slightly burned outer ring.;) mr. rajim who owns anthony's gourmet pizza knows how we like it...

hey, btw, how come you are not asking for a raise. with your diligence and dedication to work, at least they should put a good food in front of you...

I just want to mention that the above post by me was actually written by SuperBeatledud because I had not logged out of his computer. I apologize. We were too busy trying to figure out what to do with our tornado sirens and I got distracted. Unfortunately I cannot take credit for all that intelligent weather information....but the spelling mistake isn't mine either :o)

But yeah, crazy weather last night. It's going to be an interesting Spring.

i thought it sounded like you had written it straight from an encyclopedia entry. superbeatledud, hm? that doesn't quite explain it...

Actually he got it straight from his mom. She's trained by the National Weather Service. I know this because she told me. Give me your number and I will have her call you when there are complex pressure systems headed your way. She apparently has a whole phone tree.

Sorry, TMI? In all honesty I find weather and atmospheric science fascinating. No, really. I should take classes from the National Weather Service too.

In addition to the above, Mom of SuperBeatledud (heretoforth known as MOSB) would like us all to know that if a tornado is approaching, the notion that we should open our windows is actually a myth. MOSB says that this in fact increases our indoor pressure which is what really causes the windows to blow out. MOSB could explain it better though.

I'm going to go back to being a complete dork now.

we were talking about the window thing last night: both my wife and i remembered that opening the windows was THE thing to do when we were growing up and that at some point it just went away.

it was probably started by someone making stuff up like we do here - but it caught on.

Ha, I actually said to my husband as we sheltered in our son's room "Aren't we supposed to open a window or something?"

WonderK, that kind of dorkiness is actually quite sexy, IMO. Not hitting on you or anything, I'm just saying.

AP, that tuna looks awesome - whenever I order tuna in a good seafood restaurant (my husband won't eat it so don't make it at home) I say "just barely, barely, barely seared, please...." A good piece of tuna just doesn't need anything done to it except to savor that texture and goodness.

Well time to go survey the wreckage that is my checkbook now. I'll be back in tears in a short while no doubt.

i'm still alive

Glad you're still alive puddles.

Hey I heard something of interest from my gorgeous salon client yesterday: apparently they often have regular clients come in after moving into a new house and they notice that their client's blonde hair is turning green, and they (my clients) have tracked it to recirculating hot water!! I guess the water is spending enough time in the copper pipes to pick up the green and leave it on their hair. Good to know for residential clients! (though isn't it code-mandated now in some SW states? Can you do recirculating hot water in PVC pipes? I guess stainless is a better option though.)

Wish RA Rudolph was here to weigh in, I'm sure she'd know the whole scoop.

re: WonderK's dork comment above: my fascination with this type of fact makes me an uberdork.