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Walking

Sometimes you're just going for a walk.  Or sometimes you've got an itinerary.  But you find yourself having walked pretty far in one direction and there's no bus or subway or car coming to get you.

And you may be tired.  And you may be sick of walking.  And you realize that as tired as you are, as bored of walking as you are, the only way you are going to get anywhere is to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

And that's walking.

I am coming out of hibernation

I've been neglecting this blog, and other things. Hibernating, settling in, working 6-7 days a week. I do believe its time to come out of hibernation.

I passed a man this morning carrying a sign that the world will end on May 21st, 2011, or May 11, 2012. Not much time left. Oughta wake up about now.

Plane Crash

A plane crashed into the Hudson River yesterday.  My office has a panoramic view of the Hudson, 38 floors up, and we were sitting at the conference table next to the window when it happened, literally right in front of us.  Somehow we managed to not notice a jet plane crashing into the river.

We did get to see the tail of the plane still above water, surrounded by cruise ships and ferries.  Everyone got out alive and hardly wet I hear.  Which makes me think, if I was there I could have set my facebook status on my phone to read, "on top of a sinking airplane in the Hudson river".

Ducks are not bothered by the rain

They just act like everything is normal.

I haven't written here in a while. I will be like a duck in the rain. Or something.

I've spent most of the last week sick in bed and after two days at work I got sick again, yay! I picked up the boy from the airport last night at 2am...6 hours delayed... And he diagnosed me as post influenza pneumonia... I woke up in worse condition still. Great fun it is being sick. No. No it's not.

On the bright side I got an apartment to move into for the new year, which means I've decided to stay in the area for some time.

Church project is too much drama to write, especially with my awesome new iPhone!!!!!! Get one now.

Ok back to sickly sleep time.

White Powder

Yesterday I had a two hour lunch.  One for meeting Ersela to exchange ARE study guides and to talk about why I don't like it here, etc.  And another because when I returned, the lobby of the NYTimes building where I work was closed, tarped up while the NYPD investigated a "suspicious package".  Apparently someone mailed people at the Times envelopes with white powder, which turned out to be nothing.  In the meantime I wandered around the Muji shop, and waited on a long line to get on a freight elevator back up.  It was odd, seeing cops with their cases of who knows what, labeled 'emergency wmd bla bla bla'.

That's what you get for working in a high profile building.

in a nutshell

haven't written anything in a while......let's see what's been happening lately:

taking another licensing exam next week, the beast of mechanical and electrical systems. I failed it exactly two years ago this month....but then again i was getting out of a bad relationship, partying every night with a friend who did the same, and went to mohegan sun the night before the exam to play craps - lost a hundred bucks, found an appropriate venue to say 'big dick daddy from cincinnati' and not get funny looks

slowly eeking out pre-design studies on the church, going slowly, i think this project will go on for several years, but gotta keep focused though and make the time

started a job that sounds glamorous, has its moments, but generally i just don't like it.... leaving at 8 is considered 'early', hypocritical bosses, not going to learn anything more about making buildings, only very zoomed out design, and i'm in the ugliest part of manhattan...on the bright side, i went on a last minute trip (12hrs from notice to flight) to dubai, abu dhabi, and beirut...... beirut is fantastic, beautiful in spite of the bombed out buildings and tanks peppered around the city, just so nice.....we went during ramadan and dubai was really toned down because of it, but seeing the world on someone else's dime is a great thing....still i am willing to give it up.....almost took a fantastic apt in downtown jersey city but, finally listening to my gut, backing out.....

i've been in a crapola mood lately until admitting out loud what would make me happy has changed that - returning to cambridge...i miss the scale of the city, it doesn't have a hundred of everything like in nyc but i really don't need 100 sushi restaurants....the beauty - nyc is ugly and dirty, cambridge is picturesque, i can live in the middle of things for the price of being far out of the city here....in other words, i think wherever you go you have to make compromises, there's no perfect city.....and the things that i've grown to like, i don't want to compromise on, and some of the benefits of new york, i can live without - i really don't want to party till 4am anymore.....midwestern transplants who move into a 3br apt in brooklyn and automatically think they are the hottest thing on earth, granted new englanders have attitude too, but its different.....its got alot going for it, and, in these political times, i think its time to know the difference between righting a mistake and 'staying the course'...so yeah that's about it...i think i should return.....

Architecture Time!

My friend, and finally engaged to his girlfriend of 76 years, Franky, just had his latest project featured on Apartment Therapy. Its a rooftop garden in Athens, with gangster views in every direction. Fantastic photos too!

See all of them and read the article on the website:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/gardening/roof-garden-by-mabarchitects-061303

In other archi-news, I'm taking my 7th exam tomorrow - Lateral Forces. Also meeting with the church board on the project that I've been talking about for months. Its going slowly, and has no money, but I'd rather do it for little to nothing than pass up a first project of this magnitude. But for the time being it seems to be a part time job. We'll see. Annnd starting a new job on Monday in NYC. So I will be pulling myself in 3 directions pretty soon. Whopee!

Sleeping with a Ghost

So I'm sure there is a ghost in this room and its making my sleep a wee bit uncomfortable. Yesterday morning I was woken up by the sound of someone walking - well more sliding their feet - up to the side of my bed. I thought it was theBoy, turned, and of course, no one was there. Last night, I was tossing and turning thinking about how this person or thing would return. After sleeping on my side for some time, I turned onto my back, opened my eyes, and soon after the room was full of bright light. EEEEEK. Was it a truck nearby, a neighbor's light? Nope. It was my cell phone. The light turned on as if someone was calling or sending a text, but there was neither. That was good enough to freak me out and I was one "event" away from sleeping outdoors last night.

In related news I had a dream this morning that I was walking down a hall with one of my brothers. We stopped at a table piled with ham sandwiches on white bread. The lazy looking guy sitting on the only sofa in the big room got up for a sandwich too. I decided not to, then saw a delicious looking fig, which got bigger and more complex as I opened it. It turned into some big black thing which convinenently had writtten on it that it was part of the corn family. I kept peeling it open. I ripped open a big pod, which instantly turned into a plastic to-go container, and in it was a pile of nickle sized brown bean-chip things. Of course by then it was a party for my dad, and we had tons of food, which I had to move out of my trunk (we must've moved outdoors) because I didn't want people dropping food in the trunk. My dad praised everyone for planning the party so far in advance (one day according to dream conversations). I don't know. That's all I remember now.

The Hipster Problem

Having spent more time in NYC this summer than I have in four years there is something that has really surprised me. That is, the enduring phenomenon of the hipster. I really thought this thing would be over by now. Skinny jeans, dyed hair, repulsive body odor, contrived attitude, and penchant for 80's like music. Where are these people coming from, and why are they here? When did it become cool to smell terrible? These people are so desperate to belong to something they will stop at bathing. Smells like consumers posing as artists.

I've heard that Spanish gangs in Williamsburg have taken to attacking hipsters with machetes. That's a bit extreme. I do believe something will come along that will kill it, eventually.

Its always darkest before the dawn, they say.

Make Blueprints?

Draw the outside?

I need to have a talk with this person. My first, and last, encounter with real blueprints was ten years ago. But that's not even the point. Everyone seems to want to be an architect nowadays. I guess someone's gotta draw the outside. Whatever that means. There is serious wasted energy in that idea.

Architecture Sucks

All architects know this. I think its mostly all the garbage that you have to put up with to make architecture. People who want something for nothing are at the top of that list, at least today. What is it that makes people think that a set of drawings (that can take months of design and production work to finish) are somehow something that should be free? Or that I would want to design something for someone else to "do the details"? Something is seriously wrong with people's perception of architects' values. And no, its not just a head in the clouds scenario.

Britney Spears, Broccoli or MIT Wondergeek

Newsflash:
Britney Spears is actually a piece of broccoli. Actually. This is some entertaining spam. I wonder if its all computer generated or if someone is sitting in a dark room somewhere cranking out headlines with Britney and Paris Hilton.

I just bid 10 bucks for Britney's baby on Ebay. Thanks spam guy!

Dictionary: Yellow Peril

I picked up an old pocket dictionary that the local library was giving away. Its from 1963, had a nice cover, so whatever I grabbed it. Flipping through, I found an interesting definition that I've never seen before.

yellow peril - The danger to people of a white race threatened by the domination of people of a yellow-skinned race.

In other news, China leads the USA in gold medals 46-29, but the USA is ahead 95-83 in total medals.

Firm Names and Paris Hilton

Architects are always imagining up clever firm names, like musicians talking about band names. Although if I had a band it would either be Spooky Pants or Sandwich Without Consequence, an architecture firm needs something more sophisticated. Personally, I think it needs to be something that is at once generic and memorable, like Paris Hilton. You know what you're getting although it still has some level of mystery and whatever with it. Generic/Specific at the same time, its hard to do. That way, also, its not something that's too trendy or style specific that you typecast yourself...

Some half baked ideas....
Easy Architecture
Public Practice

its not there yet.

The Boy Returns

Today my favorite younger brother returns from his 1 1/2 year stint on the Cayman Islands. Returning to Dirty Jerz. Sucker. Come for the highways, stay for the guidos.

The People Have Spoken

All six of them, including me, what a turnout. The pirate bite wins the award for most masculine way to eat a banana, with all other methods getting one vote each. There are no hanging chads and there will be no recount. Thank you to Cecilia for voting for Baby Bites. There is something interesting about it. I bet the Continental could pull it off. The pirate bite is the winner, so if you plan on eating a banana like a man, you know what to do.

An Afternoon in NYC

I went off to meet my friend Ersela at the David Byrne "Playing the Room" installation by Wall St. I managed to take 1 1/2 hours to go from West New York to Wall St, and she had to leave before I got there. Something made me think that taking the ferry and a bus would be faster and easier than driving in. It wasn't, and it was more expensive too. On the way, I got a call from my bank because someone had stolen my credit card info and went on a shopping spree at a Walmart in Jacksonville, FL. I've never been to Jacksonville and the only time I stepped foot in a Walmart was on a spring break road trip. If you went to the trouble of stealing credit cards, wouldn't you be more ambitious than Walmart?


Went to the American Indian museum downtown, which I didn't even know existed, but admission was free and it was hot out. I highly recommend it. There was an exhibit called "remix" where they showed contemporary Indian artwork, and an artifact exhibit of two tribes on the coast of British Columbia. They used "box drums" big painted wooden drums, and the women cut their lips and put discs in them the same way that some African tribes do. You know that National Geographic stuff. I thought it was cool to see people on different sides of the earth doing the same things. Maybe it will catch on here some day.


Walking uptown, I ran into Chris and Ade, friends from NJIT, we sat in a park, ate cherries, and talked about how architecture sucks.

Research: A Masculine Way to Eat a Banana

One day, a guy who wears man bags (not me) was confronted by someone who's nickname ends with boner (not me) about the fruit he was enjoying. "You know, , there is no masculine way to eat a banana", said Mr. Boner, completely deflating man bag wearer from enjoying his healthy snack.

We could just leave it at that. But it would be a disservice to all those homophobic people out there who want a masculine way to eat a banana. Those, some of whom read this blog in fact, fearful of the stigma of banana eating. To them I say, do not fear, you are not giving a dismembered banana tree oral stimulation.* It does not work that way.

But that is not enough. We must go further. Bananas are too good. We must find a way.

Here are some options to consider:

Pirate Bite- My personal favorite. The key is to imagine yourself as a pirate, and to bring the banana to your mouth sideways and snap off a piece. Make sure to show a lot of tooth, but do not use alot of tooth. One benefit to this method is that with the snap off bite, the remains of a snap off have a grainy fibrous natural quality, as opposed to a toothy bite that would leave a smooth creamy edge. Muscles are fibrous, fat is creamy. Fibrous is more manly than creamy. Snap off.

Mash Up
- The preferred method of Mr. Boner. First, peel completely, then mash the entire thing up into a ball, then take a big bite. I think the messiness adds to the manliness. You have to go all out with this one. Balls to the mash up walls. Smile madly while you mash it up. Crazy eyes. People will be so caught up in the fact that you are a madman that they will forget that you are eating a banana. Madman is manly. It has man in it.

Hand Offs
- This one's pretty simple. Peel the banana as usual, but instead of biting off pieces, break them off with your hand and bring said broken off pieces to your mouth hole. This method is ripe (wocka wocka) for customizing to your own style. Perhaps instead of gingerly bringing the banana piece to your mouth you slam it down, ending with an open hand slap of your face. Perhaps you throw the pieces in the air and catch them in your mouth. I don't know. Make up something you jerk. Do I have to think up everything?

Baby Bites
- As if you're feeding it to a baby, chop it into little slices on a plate and eat individually. This one takes a special kind of person to pull off and still be masculine. Extra points if you can do it while wearing a bib and sitting at a table that is way too high for you.

*By the way have you ever eaten at one of those indian banana leaf restaurants where you plop all the food onto a banana leaf? Its big fun.

A bread shop - Psychic Readers

I overheard some guy at the port authority bus termial asking about "a bread shop called au bon pain". I then proceeded to kick him in the balls. Then a Puerto Rican guy came out of nowhere, stabbed him, stole his luggage, and said "welcome to new york.". And then I found five dollars.

Have you noticed that psychic readers always have upstairs 'shops' and are always sitting on a chair outside asking you to come in? I don't know what this says about their psychic ability, except it makes them easy targets for mocking.