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Ma, humbug! (famous bankerly quote)

still bloody cold here. Japan is a nation that does not believe in insulation and double paned glass, so when I mean its bloody cold, I  mean in my living room. At least the toilet seat is warm (because Japan does believe in warm bottoms).

Feb 11, 14 7:08 pm  · 
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Sarah Hamilton
Will, I still find that so strange. I mean, it's so inefficient. Why?

Vado!!!
Feb 11, 14 8:49 pm  · 
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****melt

HI VADO!!!!

In case anyone cares... I'm still alive

Feb 11, 14 9:05 pm  · 
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Hi melt. I know you're alive!

Feb 11, 14 9:11 pm  · 
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@sarah or efficient if you don't have central heat/air and are just heating/cooling immediate surroundings...

i recently started reading a Richard Brautigan compilation - which includes

Trout Fishing in America

The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster

In Watermelon Sugar

in general i try to keep the ratio of hard to read and easy to read books in balance (at least over a year). Sometimes i find it is the books i force myself to read that i end up surprisingly enjoying.

The Trial was one of those also Marks of Identity which i completed earlier this year (2 years later)...

Feb 11, 14 10:35 pm  · 
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gruen

racketeering thread. greatest part is that I don't live in CO and don't intend to. so it's irrelevant to me. sounds like CO rules are even more lax than many places. I really wonder what the OP thinks happened to him to cause all this anger. I mean, just follow the d*mn rules and you'll become an archi eventually. Just cuz you show up at a job for 3 years does not mean you got any decent experience. Ask any intern struggling to meet the IDP requirements in 3 years. My experience was that meeting the requirements did make me a better architect, but it did take longer than 3 years. Do we really want someone who did bathroom details for 3 years to be licensed? Ideally the profession makes sure this person gets rounded experience, but obviously NCARB, or the great state of CO can't enforce what private biz does. 

OP calls me a moron. *SIGH*. At least I'm actually a real architect, in 4 states now. I think I can tie my shoes without assistance, thank you. Not sure if I should feel honored with the title or insulted. I guess I'll change my biz card:

GRUEN ARCHITECT, NCARB, IDP, AIA, RA: NY, MA, RI, WA, USGBC, LEED AP BD+C, M O R O N. 

Feb 12, 14 9:05 am  · 
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LOL gruen! I think I too am Donna Sink RA, AIA, NCARB, M O R O N

I have an actual appointment, at a set time and place, with a City code reviewer today!  Wish me luck that I will leave his office with a building permit aka an Improvement Location permit in Indy's wonky nomenclature.

Feb 12, 14 9:09 am  · 
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lol gruen

@sarah, what nam said. Japanese house without central air uses 1/7th energy of American house. All energy focused on warming bottoms. Laundry also hangs outside to dry. No dryers.  Which is cool, fer sure.

Our flat is about 1000 ft2 (big-ish for tokyo). Heating it all for 24hr a day would be really alien. Much more inefficient to do that than to just turn on and off the heaters/AC when moving from room to room.  But it means its seriously cold in the morning. Insulation would be appreciated. Space is such a premium that architects go for the extra 100mm or so that they can grab when no insulation is put in the walls. Amazing.

Feb 12, 14 9:20 am  · 
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Go ahead and laugh, my fear of sinkholes is NOT unfounded!

 

Sinkhole swallows eight vintage Corvettes at Kentucky museum.

Feb 12, 14 10:48 am  · 
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****melt

Holy crap!!!  Sinkholes scare me to death.  Especially the really big ones that are so deep you can't see the bottom.

It's nice to hear that I'm not the only one that feels like the have M O R O N behind their name.  I can't tell you the number of times I've been put on the spot with a specific question, pulled something out of my ass and then prayed that it was correct.  The older I get, the worse it becomes.  Sigh!

Feb 12, 14 12:22 pm  · 
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snooker-doodle-dandy

Donna,

My guess is you never ventured East from Tucson to Benson Arizona.  The town is built over a limestone deposit and well when it rains they have sink holes Galore.   I recall  getting a phone call from the USPS district office telling me the post office had some problems and we needed to go check it out. They said, "we can see thru the bottom of the wall to the outside." Then they went on to say the floor had dropped about 12" and the wall stayed in place and oh ya  it is a brick masonry wall.   So I told the partner in the office and we jumped in a car and drove to Benson.  Only to find   the post office evacuated and delivering mail out of the back of tractor trailer. Seems like water had gotten below the building slab and had eaten away the limestone creating a big enough cavity  to swallow up the floor.  Once we started talking to people around town we heard all kinds of stories.  The City Hall at that time was supported by adjustable floor jacks because of  ground movement.  Someone told us they walked in to a restaurant and went to use the bathroom and the toilet was down about 10 feet.  Limestone  and water don't mix.   It was about a year later when they discovered the Large Caverns just out side of Benson.

Feb 12, 14 12:53 pm  · 
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3tk

@Will: no kotatsu? those things rock!  we have one, and keep the house temp below 65F.  I remember my cousin's house where I could see my breath in the mornings.

@Nam: I love Brautigan.  Being a landscape architect his short story on the trout stream hit a particularly deep point about the lack of understanding of ecological systems at large scales.

Feb 12, 14 1:45 pm  · 
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Sarah Hamilton
I'm always feeling like a moron. I forgot two students' names today, and I've had them since August! I felt terrible. A month ago, I argued with a student that her name was Samantha and not Savanah (her actual name).
Feb 12, 14 7:42 pm  · 
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@3tk, no no kotatsu. were totally western style living. I hate the damn things. want to sit on a sofa not on the floor. They are clever though, no doubt about it, and perfectly logical. What I would prefer is better built homes so the need never comes up. Its possible but seldom happens. japanese construction is so lop-sided.

@Sarah, that's hilarious. At least you didn't call Samuel Jackson Laurence Fishburne, to his face....

Feb 12, 14 9:01 pm  · 
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snooker-doodle-dandy

20 inches of snow on top of the 14 on the ground...yikes...think I

'm moving to Alaska. That is what  they are saying at higher elevations which is where we are located.  Thinking it is roof snow shovel tomorrow....glad  I bought one last year.

Feb 12, 14 11:46 pm  · 
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gruen
Snow day here but no snow is falling (yet). Schools are just getting paranoid.
Feb 13, 14 7:30 am  · 
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3-4" heavy wet snow here. Raining now. Lovely. For penguins.

Feb 13, 14 10:37 am  · 
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snooker-doodle-dandy

Snowing here...still hawking about the same amount of snow....Yahoo!  It is a Noreaster!

Having snow day morning snack, cinnamon raisin toast and coffee.

Hoping we don't loose power.

Feb 13, 14 11:02 am  · 
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Sarah Hamilton

It's supposed to get up to 60 today.  'Bout time.  It's February for Christ's sake!

Feb 13, 14 11:30 am  · 
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gruen

we did get about 3" of snow, then rain, then snow again. 

Stupid car inspection guy made me remove the snow tires (yesterday) because the fronts were worn down. The all season tires are way worse than the worn snow tires. If this crud keeps up, I'll have to buy 2 new snow tires and pay for switching everything back again. 

Or, start running the chains again. 

Feb 13, 14 4:57 pm  · 
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I always wanted a half-track for Providence. Weather becomes insignificant and you can park anywhere you want. Go ahead and try to tow it away. 

Feb 13, 14 5:07 pm  · 
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snooker-doodle-dandy

I shoveled out once today only to have every thing drift back in.  So now I'm going to up it off till tomorrow as round to is going to hit over night.  Wind is whipping around  and suspect it will most of the night. They are talking winter thunder, so that should be interesting.

Feb 13, 14 5:31 pm  · 
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Hi TC!

I keep seeing all these photos of winter-wonderlands and feel sorry for myself for living in FL, where the low was like 38 last night... I miss skiing/sledding et al.

3tk, i haven't read that story yet and until i picked this compilation had only read 'A Confederate General From Big Sur', which i really enjoyed.

What has particularly surprised me though is how much i am enjoying the poetry sandwiched between the two short stories in this collection. Very "counterculture(y)" but some of them are lovely. And other than haiku's i have a hard time reading poetry.

Perhaps, because i don't enough...

off to my 4 local government/civic community workshop event this month...

Feb 13, 14 6:16 pm  · 
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vado retro

hi melty! i love telling my blizzard stories to the folks down here in the delta. school is closed its freaking sixty degrees and sunny. better safe than sorry for the kiddies who are all at the mall.

Feb 13, 14 6:30 pm  · 
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hey Vado! oh the delta....

also, @miles something like below

also what is winter thunder? have i become that much a southerner...

Feb 13, 14 9:14 pm  · 
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Sarah Hamilton
I always called it thunder snow.
Feb 13, 14 9:44 pm  · 
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toasteroven

I'm from a northern place where we get snow and stuff, but the first time I ever experienced thunder during a snow storm was when i was spending new years at a friend's place in Williamsburg - new years 2001.  I can't believe that's now 13 years ago.  I'm old.

Feb 13, 14 10:30 pm  · 
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We have over a foot of snow on the ground - have had it for four weeks - and Monday they're projecting rain and 40 degrees.  I foresee the entire City becoming a pig pen.

Feb 14, 14 8:18 am  · 
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gruen
Happy Valentines day TC!!

Take the time to kiss your lovers today!!
Feb 14, 14 9:23 am  · 
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If the only way those guys could eat was to hunt and kill their own food do you suppose they would still want to climb towers under construction?

Not being (totally) snarky, but really wondering: is life so absent of physical risk that people need to seek out thrills?

Feb 14, 14 10:07 am  · 
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toasteroven

rate of suburban sprawl peaked 20 years ago.

Feb 14, 14 11:59 am  · 
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snooker-doodle-dandy

Yike...no safety net or ropes.  These guys didn't appear to be tied off anywhere.  Good thing the Weather didn't change for the worse  while they were up there.  I climbed a few  small town water towers in my youth and  also did an accent on Devil's Tower in Wyoming (800 ft). Have several friend who are serious shear wall climbers and several Mountain Peak climbers.  Think they would all think this is nuts.  The only thing we didn't discover about these young bucks and that is  if they were, "Screamers or  Flappers"

Feb 14, 14 12:52 pm  · 
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Sarah Hamilton
EFF That. I couldn't even finish the video. Stopped with two minutes to go.

Falling is my worst fear. I've linked it to being out of control. There's nothing you can do to stop it. I think my heart is STILL pounding.

Who posted that? You suck. My blood pressure is skyrocketing now.

Breath......Breath....
Feb 14, 14 1:49 pm  · 
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Ropes are for pussies.

Did he have a trained bird for a videographer?

Feb 14, 14 2:15 pm  · 
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snooker-doodle-dandy

You just have to read "Climbing Magazine" to see how many people die every year and usually their Obits talk about how long they have been climbing.  The Great die along with the Weekend Warrior.

Feb 14, 14 7:13 pm  · 
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snooker-doodle-dandy

The rest of us go, "Shoveling Snow."

Feb 16, 14 1:08 pm  · 
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My lower back is causing me significant pain thanks to shoveling.  I need a better technique! This summer i'm buying a snowblower, then I'll clear every sidewalk in my neighborhood.

Feb 16, 14 1:41 pm  · 
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snooker-doodle-dandy

Ya I think a snow blower will be on my list for must buy before I retire.  I was looking at them and now they even come with heated handles....for old soft men like me. My old neighbor tells me spring for the one with the biggest motor, it is worth every penny in deep New England Snow, which usually is have ice .

Feb 16, 14 5:00 pm  · 
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gruen
Snook, which NE city are you? Also dreaming if gas powered implements..
Feb 16, 14 6:32 pm  · 
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You mean like this?

Feb 16, 14 7:10 pm  · 
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curtkram

lift with your legs, not your back.  if you're torquing your back, then don't throw snow to the side.  turn and point your feet towards where you're throwing the snow.

Feb 16, 14 8:27 pm  · 
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gruen
Miles gonna have to get one of those if this keeps up. I do have an ongoing fantasy of owning a catapult that I can tow behind the car. Maybe for pumpkins?
Feb 17, 14 12:34 am  · 
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snooker-doodle-dandy

Curt now if you can only tell me how to throw Ice, since our snow is about 50 %  ice.

gruen.....I don't live in a City...I live in New England.

Feb 17, 14 9:07 am  · 
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curtkram

snook, i've been thinking about that.  we got a bunch of ice before the snow.  i just drove over it.  i saw neighbors trying to break it up with a garden hoe or similar implement of destruction, then shoveling out the pieces. 

i have a propane torch.  the sort you might use to solder copper pipe.  i'm not sure that's big enough to fix the ice problem though.  i also have a propane grill.  that could probably be modified....

Feb 17, 14 9:20 am  · 
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gruen
I use a tile / VCT scraper to get under the ice. Also can use it to chop from above. Then, push the snow and ice as far as you can before you lift it. Like a snowplow. And loads of rock salt.

Snook, I live in NE too but am new to these parts. Seems like a big region but I'm driving all over the place for jobs.
Feb 17, 14 9:43 am  · 
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It's clear to me now that if I post that snow is cold Thayer-D will show up to accuse me of being brainwashed by academia. Jeez.

Feb 17, 14 10:20 am  · 
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3tk


Donna - use your legs not your back to lift, twist the shovel to dump (rather than throw):  shoveling technique similar to one used by archaeologists helps alleviate some of the back pain.

snooker - they sell ice breakers (or make one out of a metal scraper on a metal pole - let the self weight break the ice when you drop it-); a pinch point / pry bar/ crowbar probably would work on concrete, but might be too heavy for bituminous.  Sand is your best friend.

Feb 17, 14 10:39 am  · 
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Yeah Donna, use your legs. With pumps and seamed stockings. Then get some drooling fool to shovel for you.

Feb 17, 14 10:54 am  · 
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