so… i posted a couple days ago about some of the security around campus… i thought it was kind of funny because it just seemed like a bit of a fiasco and a little absurd. anyway, i was standing outside my studio at about 11pm two nights ago talking to my sister on the phone since reception inside buildings seems to be less than satisfactory around here [ thank you cingular ] and i walked out to the edge of the parking lot by lone pine road and stood there by the gate… it was cold so i had a jacket on, a hat and gloves… while i am talking a car stops in the middle of the road about 50 yards from me and just sits there… i’m kind of watching it because that seems sort of strange, but it just sits there… after about a minute or so two other cars pull up behind it and i can see that it’s a police car. at that point all of it’s lights come on and he drives straight toward me and tells me to take my hand out of my pocket and walk toward him… then to sit on the ground and stop moving… from where i am standing to the studio is about 25 feet… i am here, along with many other people every night sometimes all night… i don’t have my wallet on me because i’m just outside for a quick phone call… anyway, i get completely frisked by two police officers while two other police cars sit and watch [ seems like a lot of back up to me ] and then they determine that i am not the one they are looking for… really. one of the officers tells me “you understand why we stopped you right?” i said not really… he says “the police are looking for someone, you’re standing out here with a hat and gloves on…” i told him i didn’t know the police were looking for anyone and that i live here… that my studio and several of my colleagues are right in that building… that i am a graduate student at the art academy… he didn’t seem to care…
anyway. that was exciting…
so i’m doing some research to try to find the best option [ read: most affordable option ] for mobile wireless internet access for a school project and low and behold, i am referred to a project in a magazine i have sitting on my floor… unread of course… seems to do a lot of things i am currently struggling with so this is actually helpful. does not give me a cheap access method for mobile wireless internet though.
stompbox in make magazine 03
i also found this little device that will be coming out soon they say… this could be the answer to all my cel phone disgruntle-ments… now if only i didn’t sign that two year service agreement! argh!
wifi voip phone
so a couple days ago dick cheney came to town… paying a special visit to someone near the campus and we got a long email explaining why we couldn’t park in one of the lots for a certain time frame in the early afternoon… just happened to be the lot next to architecture and the high school… so not only did the lot i park in close, but the other lot we can park in was overrun with high school kids… ugh. here’s an exerpt:
All cars in the above listed lots should be removed from the area prior to 3:00pm, if possible. Cars still parked in those areas after 3:00 pm will be checked by law enforcement and bomb sniffing canines. During the period of 3:15 pm to approximately 4:00 pm no one will be allowed to access or move vehicles parked in these areas. The same protocol will occur from approximately 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm.
then i got a ticket for parking somewhere i thought was okay to park during fanfare… whatever… i’m off track… i open my email today to look at the hotline [ that’s what our weekly newletter of upcoming events is called which incidentally is emailed to us as a word document attached to a blank email… why it can’t be in plain text in the email body i don’t understand… but i digress ] at the top of the document is this statement in bold:
Academy students are welcome to wander Cranbrook’s 350 acres. However, our Security staff may ask to see your ID. Therefore, please carry your Academy ID card with you at all times.
okay…
here’s some reassuring background info on working with electricity…
If you have never worked with electricity or don’t know the difference between AC & DC this page is not for you. Unlike making your own clothes or growing your own food, which if done wrong is little more then embarrassing or unpalatable, mistakes in making or working with electricity can burn down your house or kill you. If you don’t have any experience working with electricity, hire someone that does or take a class in basic electricity at your local collage.
hahahaha… man… bookmark this site!! emoticon … [ my emphasis of course ] …
so, i was clearing off my desktop a while ago [ i wish i could make my room/studio/life that neat and tidy ] and i found a text file that was supposed to be notes for a blog post… it’s not all relevant here but i’ll post some of it… i was also trying to clear out my inbox [ 600+ messages waiting to be archived or read… ugh ] and found a link to an SRL site with a video clip… one of the things mark pauline said and of course all of the work that i haven’t looked at for a year of more made me think of what i am doing and realize how far i have to go to create something new… something that isn’t just a poorly hacked together approximation of work already done 10 years ago [ a lifetime ago with respect to technolgy ] …
anyway, here is the SRL site with a video somewhere of mark pauline saying:
“it should happen too fast, it should be too extreme. it should be like a giant accident scene so that everyone just sits there and tries to figure out what really happened. nobody really gets a clear picture of it, it’s always sort of slightly… out of focus.”
and then the earlier post that never made it to the web [ i don’t think… sorry if it’s a repeat ] but i was looking at a program called processing and read the description on their website or somewhere in the documentation…
Why is it called “Processing”?
At their core, computers are processing machines. They modify, move, and
combine symbols at a low level to construct higher level
representations. Our software allows people to control these actions and
representations through writing their own programs. The project also
focuses on the “process” of creation rather than end results. The design
of the software supports and encourages sketching and the website
presents fragments of projects and exposes the concepts behind finished
software.
// i like this description… it’s how i think about design and what i was trained to do as an architect and designer without equating the human mind with the computer, which has been a constant problem in understanding the complexity and beauty of the computer and its derivative and compounded applications, that is what we do… we modify, move and combine symbols at a low level to construct higher level representations… of course we, perhaps i, like to think it is the creation of actualities [or potentialities] rather than ‘representations,’ but i’m beginning to rethink that assessment without feeling as though i have conceded any creative control.
so… i’ve sort of lost my train of thought here and i think there was supposed to be more to this post that i can’t begin to reconstruct, but i’ve been thinking off and on about presentation and representation… mediation and immediacy… the process that goes into getting to those definitions and what that means to my work…
this is the original wienermobile… it’s at the ford museum in dearborn michigan
ah… juvenile humor… it get’s me right there.
startup sound
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Originally uploaded by estimmel.
