E-Education

My Landscape in Film class is one of a handful of courses I've taken over the years that is dependent on online resources. At Madison I utilized web resources to read countless PDFs, flip through art history "flashcards," and even enjoy a semester of videotaped lectures on landscape architecture. This course, however, represents the first time that I've been required to submit my work online. The course website both provides course information and allows for discussion on message boards. You can check out my first post if you're just not getting enough new material here on the Life and Times (although I suspect you could find much more interesting material elsewhere).

Starting Line

Once again, the semester began with a jolt. Everyone is working flat-out to get a jump on the studio project. I'm as busy as (or busier than) last semester, but the greater emphasis on digital representation is putting me more at ease.

I've begun working with Randal Korman, and I've got some exciting projects ahead of me. My first task was a simple one: I had to find a copy of the photo of architect James Stirling shown below. Fortunately I'd seen it in professor t.l. brown's class last semester, and he was kind enough to share the file with me.

Wrong Way

I think most of us have seen the pretty annoying ads that use half-destructed fonts to tell us that piracy is a form of theft. I am among the many who ignore them, although my inattention comes from the fact that I buy all my movies and almost all the music I plan to listen to in the long term. I also like to buy my software, even the expensive stuff like Adobe Creative Suite, which I recognize represents a lot of hard work from talented people. It's also nice to know I can reinstall and update the software reliably should the need ever arise. So when I learned that I would need Autodesk's 3ds Max this semester, I came home to find the best price. Even the academic edition is pricey, but I was willing to pay. Then I looked at the agreement form I'd have to sign, and I discovered that the academic version (which is the only one I can afford) is altered to mark everything I print as "academic version," which sounds pretty tacky. I don't know how I'm supposed to take that, but I can't help but feel it's a big ol' slap in the face for trying to do the right thing. Sorry, Autodesk, but you're not getting a dime from me.

How perfect perfection can be or The whole "twenty-one" thing (part III)

I had my first tapped Guinness tonight, and it surpassed all my expectations. I've found that Guinness poured from the can is better than Guinness drunk from the can or Guinness that's been in a bottle (no matter how it's served), but the stuff on tap was a whole new experience. Anne told me this when I first had a Guinness back on St. Patrick's Day, but I didn't realize just how right she was. I think my home of the future will have Guinness on tap in the kitchen. Hopefully I'll never feel compelled to move to Ireland.

Foothold Gained

The Indian computer whizzes were able to fix my problems by manually installing some out-of-date updates, which allowed the newer updates to install correctly. I've been able to move on from there myself.
Indians: 1
Microsoft: 0

Clean Slate

I reformatted the Quidnunc (my old Dell notebook) today. This is the forth time I've done so (the last was documented during my first month of The Life and Times), but the process never gets easier. This time I'm having problems with the Windows Update, which can't seem to install the latest version of (get this) Windows Installer. Yes, it can't install the installer.

I'm currently in an SU lab, letting two Indian students delve into technical details that only irritate me. We'll just have to see what happens. I'm thankful that Plumtree (my new Alienware notebook) is doing well, and can see me through this rough patch.

Venitian hilarity

Claire and I ended our time together with a trip to the cinema to see Casanova. My previous prejudices against Heath Ledger were assuaged by his appearance in Brokeback Mountain, which I can respect even without having seen it, and I'm quite glad they were, for Casanova was one of the funniest movies I have ever seen and certainly the funniest I've seen since The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra. The film had the makings of a Shakespearean comedy: a tangled web of romance, an entertaining villain, sight gags, clever quips, and the right timing. Claire and I even got one laugh from the end credits. I also enjoyed the on-sight cinematography in Venice. Last weekend we watched Top Hat, a favorite film of mine, and we couldn't help but notice that the Hollywood mock-up of Venice looked more like the freshly painted sets of Munchkinland than the City of Canals. Casanova delivered the real thing and was better for it.

Employment

I have received the welcome news that I will be a research assistant to one of the faculty of the School of Architecture this spring. I'll be working about ten hours a week for Randall Korman, with whom I've had a few pleasant encounters during the fall semester. He is one of the few full professors in the school, and his biography is most impressive:

Randall Korman is a native of New York City where he received a bachelor of architecture degree from The Cooper Union. From 1972 to 1974 he worked as a graduate intern at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York City. He received a graduate degree in design from Harvard University in 1977. His professional experiences include employment in the architectural offices of Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves and Kenneth Frampton.

His teaching experiences include two years as instructor in the Department of Architecture at Carnegie-Mellon University and as a visiting critic at the University of Texas and Kanto Gakuin University in Yokohama, Japan. He joined the faculty at Syracuse University in 1977. Since then, he has taught at all levels of the undergraduate and graduate programs and has organized foreign study programs in Austria, Italy, Great Britain, and Russia.

Between 1980 and 1982 he founded and taught in the Syracuse University School of Architecture Florence Program. Since then he has served as the head of both the undergraduate and graduate architecture programs, and in 1989 returned to Florence as the director of the Florence Center. From 1992 to 1997 he served as the founding director of the National High School Student Architecture Design Competition.

He is an imposing figure, but I'm optimistic about working with him.

Clear Water

I returned from my second of two trips to Eau Claire, Wisconsin this morning. The first was a quick two-nighter in December, coming home with Claire for break. For that visit we stayed in Claire and Melissa's dorm room on campus, but this time we were staying in an off-campus house with Claire's friends Robyn and Marissa, which provided the comfort of some extra legroom. Highlights of this second visit were our tour of the Leinenkugel bewery (where I sampled their Creamy Dark and their seasonal Apple Spice beers) and our meal at Flavor of India (possibly the best restuarant in any Days Inn anywhere).

The Whole "Twenty-One" Thing (Part II)

I managed to get carded at Cub Foods yesterday when I stopped to pick up AriZona iced green tea and Mike's Hard Lime for our New Years Eve Party. The cashier, a middle-aged woman, looked saddened when she saw my license, and she told me that she didn't want to believe that someone with my birth-date was already old enough to drink, but the computer had indeed approved me.

The party was a great deal of fun. Claire and I joined my parents and a four couples from church in playing Hand & Foot, a canasta-type card game. The party ended quite soon after midnight, which granted Claire and me some quality together time before she leaves tomorrow and allowed everyone else to get to bed.