so i haven’t posted for a couple days here… but i guess i have been avoiding writing down my thoughts… i’ve never really been a journal type of person… never been able to keep a consistent pattern of writing things down or keeping my sketchbooks from turning into notepads, lists, phonebooks, etc… all not really part of what i envision a journal/sketchbook worthy of keeping around for posterity to be… but maybe that’s something that i can let go of… i realize that ‘regularity’ is not crucial, tends to paralyze, and is kind of boring… but whatever, i still have a tendency towards it… and not seeing it when i look back is still slightly discouraging.

regardless, i’ve had some busy days lately… lots of noteworthy things happening and no record of them… i’ll try to recap…

first, i found out that a close family member has cancer… not the news you want to hear, really ever… i know i tend toward silence when i am faced with things i don’t know how to deal with and i also fear the cliche responses that accompany such revelations [which feeds the silence]… but i hope i have been able to convey my true concern and love… i am optimistic about the near future, the surgery, the long term… and i know that many others have and will offer support in many ways…

now onto more petty things which will invariably consume more space and more words… some things are easier to write about…

i went to the fantomas concert on monday which was amazing. st. andrews hall is a great place to see a band play, i recommend it to anyone who might be in detroit. also i highly recommend seeing fantomas if you get the chance… Truly a mind blowing experience.

anyways, i was supposed to meet a couple friends there [funny how friendster can actually put together a few people who have the same eclectic interests] but due to poor coordination and lack of communication on my part, they failed to make it to the show… so i saw it by myself, in a sea of unfamiliar [yet somehow not so different] faces… patton was amazing… i think i have discovered why i like him so much, he has tons of gadgets… even some small decapitated baby dolls with toy speaker boxes for bodies hanging over his equipment. but he also has a computer filled with effects and samples, a MIDI keyboard to control these, a series of effects and nondescript boxes connected to one microphone and another microphone that is cleaner… he’s very animated and in command of the scene… dave lombardo is also a maniac on the drums… i would have to say that while trevor and buzz add something quite unique, this was really the dave and mike show… i thought dave was going to pass out at the end of the show… dripping with sweat and looking like he could barely control his legs… the bass drum shook the building… and it was unrelenting. whoa… enough of that. go see them.

school has been a mad house too… the degree show opens friday evening and there are 70 second year students all franticly trying to finish installing their pieces… all of the rest of us have become unwitting moppets for their sometimes panic driven needs… building, sanding, moving, fetching food, injecting moments of rationality… i guess this is a glimpse of what i will be like in a year from now… scary…

i’ve also been trying to work out some plans for the summer… can’t quite seem to get everthing to come together in a satisfying way… starting to look at other options… seems like the only things i can find that i want to do either cost money or don’t pay much if at all… discouraging. maybe i can just find some independant projects… begin to work for myself and apply for some grants or fellowships… kinda missed the deadlines for a lot of that stuff for this summer though… we’ll see… summer approaches and no man [or woman] can hold it back….

been finding lots of exciting work on the web lately… in my search for interesting opportunities… but i guess i’ve rambled enough for now… we’ll save some of those for later and try to get some work presentable for my studio site… still having difficulty with the gps communication… thought i had the right connectors, but still not getting power… ugh…

after a slow start today… awake and functioning far earlier than i would have liked, but far later than i had agreed to meet a friend to help install…

anyways, now i head home… finally feeling a little better, but still tired… starting to get excited about going to see fantomas tomorrow in detroit… they play at st. andrews hall. i’ve never seen them live, but they are one of my favorites… unfortunately i wasn’t able to round up anyone to join me, so i will be flying solo… i don’t mind and i didn’t really expect anyone to want to go… not exactly mainstream these guys…

anyways, so i don’t forget… here’s directions… mental note - print these tomorrow… so… off to rest my body and my mind… many things to do this week… many plans to make…

i just kind of like this song… and it has a chorus that resonates with me and some things i’ve been thinking lately… and there’s this great pink floyd-esque riff in it that always reminds me of the tornado in the wizard of oz…

scream ima robot

Big blue in a gasfield, you caught me lyin’ Pathetic religion of sex and cryin’ I nailed the door shut to leave you blind I nailed the door shut for peace of mind

You were the best love I ever had You hit me high, you hit me low Time doesn’t slow down for those who dream I wake only to hear this scream

Hot and cold in the goldmine, the diamond legs After she hit me off, I just had to beg I nailed the door shut to leave you blind I nailed the door shut for peace of mind

You were the best love I ever had You hit me high, you hit me low Time doesn’t slow down for those who dream I wake only to hear this scream

You were the best love I ever had You hit me high, you hit me low Time doesn’t slow down for those who dream I wake only to hear this scream

You were the best love I ever had You hit me high, you hit me low Time doesn’t slow down for those who dream I wake only to hear this scream

Love is the only incident An infatuation Is this sweet manipulation? Well, I was frightened myself What is love? It’s a fine inclination A lovely retardation What is life but a reality vacation? Indulging operation What is love? The worthiest damnation Sweet temptation What is love?

so, as if i needed more exposure on the web, i have set up a website for future development [please don’t give me too much grief for the state of it at the moment… it’s very, very much a work in progress] and perhaps the base of operations for some future projects…

anyways, it has another blog [i know, just zip it] that is served from my web host… it runs on WordPress, an open source software that looks pretty robust and easy to use… even though it took me a little while to set it up [chalk that up to never having dealt with .php files or sql databases… like, ever] and the fact that it’s open source usually means that it doesn’t just do things for you, you have to kind of know a little bit about what is happening… which is fine, because it’s usually better to know those things anyways… point being, i like it. and it will have content at some point. but we’ll have to see how the ebb and flow of these various outlets changes what i do and where i do it… until next time…

i’m always thinking of things to write about on this thing while i’m driving or walking around campus… and then when it comes time to write them, i’ve forgotten most of what i wanted to say… AARGHH!… anyways, i kind of just needed to vent that a bit… maybe things will come back to me later tonight while i am still sitting here…

i feel like i haven’t been doing any work lately… just some reading and wishful thinking about projects… unfortunately i don’t see that changing much… i am presenting [as part of a group of 3] a discussion topic for our studio seminar tomorrow… we’ve been reading Ulrich Beck’s books The Risk Society and Reflexive Modernization and broke up into groups to research and present an actual crisis of the built world and what we [as architects, builders, planners, etc.] can do to address this constructively… our topic is slightly broad… we are planning to talk about production methods and their implication and effect on local economies and the environment… anyways… rather than explain it all here [which would probably not be such a bad idea] i will get back to actually reading about this…

ugh… also need to try to get a job!!! summer is coming fast and furious…

so, what can i say about john maeda… he’s a pretty amazing guy… he has several sites to look at… check out [ Maeda Studio ] and [ Simplicity ] and find some of his books… very geeky, but also very beautiful… see the quote below for a condensed and poignient outlook on the ‘division’ between science and art… [stolen from a link on this page]

anyways, i saw this project that i thought might bring a curious smile to the faces of all of my many readers… [ oneline ] and i ran across his latest book Creative Code in the bookstore today and i want, er… need it… :-)

well… off to do a little reading… more books have made their way into my arms via the school library. now to learn something from them.

okay so this isn’t really new, and i haven’t had time to digest the possible implications of this project, but i have to say that it seems interesting in that it uses gps devices in a way that i hadn’t really thought about before… in this project, which can be found [ here ] gps devices are worn by a number of people [perhaps unknown to all of the other users] and used kind of like a compass… the devices point to the geographic center of all the active devices… it’s call ‘the calling’ and so rather than pointing north, like a standard compass, it ‘calls’ one toward the center of their group… kind of… anyways, i think there are some great possibilities for something like this… i’ll have to think about it some more…

i finally got around to looking at the Creative Commons website and decided that i like it… so i’ve added a license to my blog here and for my studio work… i’ve also encouraged my fellow students to take a look at this and offered to help them put a CC license on their work too… we’ll see if anyone cares… or reads their email… or… well, whatever. maybe i’m just cynical… anyways, the site is seriously one of the easiest legal sites i have ever waded through… and it’s free… and they even have step by step instructions, with screen captures [which i really like] to show you how to add a CC license you all of the common blogging service’s blogs…

so check it out… takes about 10 minutes…

so i was listening to this mix cd i got from a friend of mine awhile back… seems like it was in return for the use of my season 1 and 2 episodes of alias [yes, i know… but i have a weak spot for the sexy woman espionage/action/scifi genre of tv show… she spies, VIP, alias, cleopatra 2525… all bad, but still good…]

anyways, i guess it really wasn’t that fact that brought this cd out of my rather sparce collection of cds here [thank you itunes] but rather the fact that my cd collection is rather sparce here… and i hadn’t listened to this one for some time… but i’ve been skipping to this song by jason mraz alot lately and i thought since i am about to watch an episode of alias right now, and i just listened to the song and smiled, that i would share the lyrics for others to enjoy too… i also like the fact that i found the lyrics online by searching for the the word lacubrius… an apparently made up word that just sounds cool, but now has a definition in one of the more interesting dictionaries online…

i’ll do anything jason mraz

Go make your next choice be your best choice And if you’re looking for a boy with a voice, well baby I’m single Are you in the mood for some dude, are you in the mood to be subdued Or would you rather just mingle? Let’s get set then to go then or let us jet set we’ll be like the jetsons You can be jane my wife, should I marry jane tonight?

See I would if I could I’ll do anything spontaneously.

We can keep chilling like ice cream fillin We can be Kool and the Gang if you’d rather hang Ain’t no thing, I can be lacubrious wit you I got no ifs ands ors no wits or what’s about it But this place is getting crowded and my house is two blocks away Or maybe closer

See I would if I could I’d do most anything spontaneously. You know I would, oh if I could I would do anything spontaneously.

If you could be nimble, you’d have it simple just like me. So go on and try it, do not deny yourself your freedom.

So step on up to the plate get a date with mraz See you better act fast because supplies they never Now did you know this is limited time offer So go make your mind up before our times up So you better start winding it up because the party’s almost over (and if you should know girl, it’s a little bit lower now)

See I would do, if I could do. I’d would do oh anything spontaneously. You know I would, oh and I could prove it oh that I’ll do anything spontaneously.

i also wanted to mention that i had my first video/IM experience the other day… it was pretty cool and i got to see a smile i haven’t seen for awhile… the delay inherent in, dare i use the phrase, long-distance relationships is something special… it draws out a part of that relationship that could [and often does] get compressed and passed by without note. i’m thankful to have that extention… that deep breath… that ellipsis…