Sleepless But Successful

I've been busy and in need of sleep all week, but things actually went pretty well. The critics seemed to favorably view the work that Michael and I pinned-up on Wednesday, and my interview with SmithGroup was pleasant and left me hopeful. I interviewed with a vice president of the D.C. branch, so I still need to connect with the folks in Minneapolis before I know the status of the situation. I like the company's work (especially their terminal in Detroit), and their Minneapolis location is extremely close to a Maple Grove Transit downtown drop-off point, so I won't need to drive to work. I'll be a happy camper.

The Sud'

There's something both amusing and likable in the sight of three young black men dressed in expensive, baggy Sean John clothing, over-sized gold chains, and white-on-white Yankees caps sitting aboard the bus in silence, working the Sudoku.

Stowaway

Last night was the architecture school's Black & White Beaux Arts Ball, an event that brought in numerous undergraduates in evening gowns and fine suites, a smattering of faculty in pantsuites and sportcoats, and lump of graduate students in a rather casual array of black and white. I had no intention of attending owing to a lack of time and funds (admission was $18), but since I hadn't left the studio since getting lunch around noon I found myself on the inside of the warehouse without ever passing through proper admission. By chance I was wearing a white shirt, so my attire drew little attention. There was an open bar from 10 to 11, and since I didn't pay I didn't want to abuse it, but I also noted that the ball was impeding my passage to the bus, and I thought a complementary screwdriver would balance things out. I think my trespass was excusable, because not only was there very little Absolut in my drink, I can truthfully say that upon discovering my illicit presence the president of the Architectural Student Association pardoned me for it.

$1.012907 In Change

Class was starting, and Aaron (our professor) and I were still in line for food, so he gave me some cash to pay for his meal while he went upstairs to start the session. His total came to $5.01, and I didn't have a penny, so dished out what looked like 99 cents in change. Interestingly enough, among the pennies was not only a Canadian penny (which are not that uncommon this close to the border) but a two-cent Euro coin, which is the same size and color as an American penny. I didn't want to burden the professor with change, so I gave him two paper ones. Calculating my total when I got home, I discovered that I actually came out ahead, since the strong Euro more than made up for the weak Canadian dollar. Of course this assumes that I someday get to use the Euro cent.

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.

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

Christmas marked my twenty-first birthday, and apparently I magically became old enough to drink responsibly. So tonight Claire, her older sister Karla, and I went out to Houlihan's to break-in my new adult-status Minnesota Driver's License. I ordered Samuel Adams (2 for 1 during Happy Hour), but was, alas, not carded. The place was quite packed, so we ended up sharing a table with a group of seemingly random Minnesotans who happened to be friends. They all knew each other, but aside from one pair being sisters, they seemed to have no definite connection. They were all in high spirits, however, and before long started including the three of us in their rounds of drinks. The first was a shot of Rumple Minze; the latter - I was told - was a "Red Headed Slut" (1/2 oz Jagermeister, 1/2 oz peach schnapps, splash cranberry juice), but since it was served in an Old Fashioned glass (instead of a shot glass) I'm not entirely sure.

Missing person

Admittedly my posts have been infrequent this month, as they often are in December, but I've been wondering for quite some time what ever happened to Mr. or Ms. Jamessux (I have the feeling that 'Ms.' is correct, so I'll take a chance here). This mysterious character was my most frequent commenter back in 2004 around the election. I didn't agree with her (and didn't really like her abrasive style), but I can be rather nostalgic at times. Since we don't have any fresh material, let's revisit some of my favorite Jamessux moments:

"James, you are so lame. Why do you write stupid nonsense?"

Okay that's enough.

Jamessux, are you out there?

Christmas past

I had a full and enjoyable Christmas. Claire joined my family and my sister's friend Joanna for my official birthday meal at Joe's Crab Shack on Friday. She was ill that night (for reasons unrelated to the meal), so I stayed the night and took her to urgent care on the morning of Christmas eve. She was already doing better by the time she rejoined us for dinner, the candlelight church service, and, of course, opening of presents. The highlight of my collection was a Tom Bihn Brain Cell laptop case for my new Alienware notebook computer.

The next morning we opened stockings (Mom gave me three bars of dark chocolate!) and ate homemade lemon doughnuts. We were joined for a lunch of roast ham by my aunt and uncle and my cousin Karl and his girlfriend Natalie. Pictionary and chocolate chip birthday-cheese cake followed. Claire and I finished the day by creeping ourselves out with the unpleasantly dark movie Seven, and we were both glad to have each other near.

End Of Semester Summary

Since I've all but failed to post so far this month, I'd perhaps best summarize things, real quickalike: 5 December was the final review for studio. It was an amazingly stressful day, but I think my review didn't go terribly. I was told by my classmates afterward that I was "articulate" during my presentation, which is reassuring. Drawing class ended with much lower-key review one week later, although the preparation was actually much more time-consuming. Building systems concluded with an exam on Tuesday that turned out to be quite easy except for a couple odd questions. That afternoon and evening I got all my studio belongings to my apartment and then out of that jumble I picked out the things I needed to bring home. After a very short night's sleep I flew home on Wednesday. Thursday and the first four hours of Friday were consumed by the final paper for my Discourse class. Finishing at 4:45 EST, I wrapped up my semester in the true architecture school style. I'm by no means idle now, but the pressing deadlines are passed.

Intriguing Product

Claire brought these to my attention - the perfect gifts for your favorite geologist, rock hound, or birthstone enthusiast.

The tenth intriguing product is SoapRocks.

Wind And Rain, Respectively

We had powerful winds from yesterday evening until about ten this morning. The afternoon was calm and pleasant, but rain started while a number of us were having dinner at Cosmo's. I rode home from main campus about four hours later, and there was clearly at least ten centimeters of water flooding the roads. It's a good night to stay in and work; I'm glad I came home when I did, and I'm glad I've nowhere to be until noon tomorrow.