I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. - Thomas Jefferson
so with that in mind i am trying to work a little harder… went jogging yesterday for the first time in 8 months! yikes… hopefully i can get one more in tomorrow before leaving for michigan on friday. not sure what that will bring… counting on inspiration… at the very least seeing some old friends. :) on a related note, while fumbling around the web i stumbled onto Noah Kalina and his picture a day project. there i found reference to ( a familiar name from Cranbrook ) Jonathan Keller’s daily photo project as well as a project called Slitscan Typeface Generator which uses scripting ( i guess some kind of javascript ) in Adobe Illustrator…. i didn’t even know you could write scripts for illustrator… but it generated illustrator files of his initials ( you can see jpegs of those file below and read about the process at the link above ) and provided a different kind of mail art project …not sure what i would do with this script, nor the files, considering it generates only a ‘J’ and a ‘K’ and there’s a second part to the script that i don’t even have access to that is processed by JK himself… but i really like the way the project creates a short little conversation. and the images look cool. there are lots of cool things on the web and a pretty good concentration can be found at the links above.
we booked our tickets to go out to cranbrook for the upcoming degree show on the 21st of april a couple days ago and i’m kind of excited to get out there… it’s kind of like a homecoming, but closer. it will be a short visit [ friday thru monday ] but fortunately, jess will be there and cy is having an opening of a solo show somewhere around town. i even hear ben will be there playing music! sounds like a blast! i’m so ready for a short break. in other news, i think it’s about time i signed up for my next registration exam…. i have not been on top of that since taking the con. docs. test more than a month ago. and this blog certainly needs a make over… oh and there are those christmas cards i didn’t send out, and two half finished christmas presents! sitting on my desk. um… i think i am behind. crap. i’m supposed to be hard at work…. focus, focus, focus… oh look PONIES!!!
How Long Is A Good Nap? THE NANO-NAP: 10 to 20 seconds Sleep studies haven’t yet concluded whether there are benefits to these brief intervals, like when you nod off on someone’s shoulder on the train. THE MICRO-NAP: two to five minutes Shown to be surprisingly effective at shedding sleepiness. THE MINI-NAP: five to 20 minutes Increases alertness, stamina, motor learning, and motor performance. THE ORIGINAL POWER NAP: 20 minutesIncludes the benefits of the micro and the mini, but additionally improves muscle memory and clears the brain of useless built-up information, which helps with long-term memory (remembering facts, events, and names). THE LAZY MAN’S NAP: 50 to 90 minutesIncludes slow-wave plus REM sleep; good for improving perceptual processing; also when the system is flooded with human growth hormone, great for repairing bones and muscles.
so… i’ve been thinking about design and the process of it. brief bio – i studied on the west coast [ undergrad ] and worked for the first time [ in the field of architecture ] on the west coast [ socal ] before going to an art school [ to get an MArch ] in the suburbs of michigan and then moving to new york to continue working… at any rate, i must have picked up some preconceptions about what is expected/assumed from architectural design while on the west coast [ not to say that these are exclusive to that area, they just don’t seem so self evident here ] the first of which is that a building designed by an architect will function properly. i know this is not an assumption everyone can make [ there are certainly skill levels ], but i figure if you are a good architect [ or even if you only consider yourself a good architect ] you begin with the assumption that you can design a building that meets the given program… a client expects that at the very least… even from a developer. that is a given right? you have to follow through, but you don’t win the project by proving that you can make the program work in most cases. in my past experience, you focus on the next level… you get the project by having the most seductive, the coolest, the most intriguing design… you make the program fade into the background… it works, but a patron doesn’t go to a restaurant and say “my god! look how efficient the cook line is!” or “the bathrooms are so elegantly hidden behind that partition created by the service station!” ugh… no, that’s inside baseball… an architect quietly earns the respect of the restaurateur that way, showing them that you know what is expected while focusing on the patrons’ experience of the place. anyway, i’m getting off track. the next progression, as i see it, is to take the aesthetic ‘wow’ factor as assumed. ‘yes, of course the design will be amazing looking… we are architects, that is part of what we do.’ and built into that assumption is the previous assumption that the building will work for them. now what we will do is reprogram the building or streamline it or make it self sufficient or…. do you see? in summary: what is it that an architect does? A. design a building that will stand up [ i didn’t even mention this above since it’s kind of self evident ] B. makes the building function properly. C. makes the building look good. D. gives that something else. [ new inventive program, inspired structural/building system, etc ] okay, so part D is a relatively loose description, but you get the point right? A, B, and C are assumed!!!
no, not that kind of archive… The Archive is a coffee shop and video store down the street from where i live… it’s got free wifi, so jenn and i thought ‘hey, let’s go down there and post some pictures and blog this morning’ but it’s reeeeaaaaallll slow internet… so, as i sit here waiting for one image to upload to flickr i realize that that may in fact be what is making the whole network creak to a halt… i kind of feel guilty about that, but hey, it’s only one picture and if that’s what is bringing down the network that it’s crappy to begin with… it is slowly posting tho ;)
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what have i been doing since i last posted?… lots i guess, i haven’t posted anything for awhile [ i’m afraid to look at the last post because it will take forever to load, but i’m sure it was a long time ago since i can’t even remember it!!! ] jeremy came to visit and we went out doing all kinds of touristy things… i guess we didn’t need to do that, but we did. we saw the statue of liberty, went to the top of the empire state building, went to two hockey games at madison square garden, walked around central park, ice skating at bryant park [ okay, only jeremy actually ice skated ]… it was a fun visit! except that we were all sick :( i’ll put some pictures up soon… you can see jenn on one of our outings discovering the hidden beauty of the subway station [ i forgot where this is… maybe someone remembers ] is here…
i’m back in brooklyn again after a short week in california. it was fun and even though the weather has been great here in new york [ 70 degrees yesterday!!! and beautiful skies! ] it’s just not the same as california. so here are a couple pictures and a little video clip of the one afternoon that me and jenn and amy and jp got to hang out on the beach. it was really windy…
ahhh… remember those good ol’ days, when we would get together at the local lounge to discuss the state of contemporary art and theory? we could just debate for hours and hours… sometimes until the sun came up. :)
there is so much to do here and i haven’t posted anything about it in such a long, long time. so, i don’t really know where to begin… a couple of weeks ago i went to Eyebeam to see a sort of performance/exposition at Upgrade!… it was three electronic musicians [ i can’t remember all their names, but i’m sure it’s archived on the eyebeam website somewhere ] here’s a little clip of Jamie Allen.
jenn and i also recently painted our apartment. of course true to form, we are not finished yet… we cleaned as well, though you won’t see that in the picture, since we have a guest coming for thanksgiving weekend! jenn’s former roommate, birgitte is on her way as i write this… here’s a view of the freshly painted west wall…
i know there are many more things to write, but i suppose i will just have to gain the discipline to write more often so i can keep up!
[ the second ‘meditation’ that has been sitting in here waiting to be posted.. ]
Hiro does not know what he is doing, what he is preparing for. That’s okay, though. Most of programming is a matter of laying groundwork, building structures of words that seem to have no particular connection to the task at hand.
p. 351 Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
this is what i told myself all last year… it’s what i heard from people i respect and have a little faith in… ‘this is all going to be important later…’, ‘your work is foundational’, things like that… okay, so while i find it a bit refreshing to read this in print [ even if it’s a cyberpunk/post-cyberwhatever novel, it’s still a classic ] i clearly recognize that in the same sitting i got to the part where this preparation payed off… i can’t say the same thing for the work that i was doing last year. alright, i don’t want to sound too negative here. i enjoyed the work and i learned a lot of things… i just don’t really have the confidence that it is even in the right ballpark. i’m not looking for a pep talk; i know i am fairly smart and that learning some new things will ultimately be good, even if it’s just an exercise. but i still have questions and fears and motivation issues that are compounded by these questions and fears…
Modern, Cool Nerd**60 % Nerd, 56% Geek, 17% Dork
For The Record:A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.You scored better than half in Nerd and Geek, earning you the title of: Modern, **Cool Nerd. Nerds didn’t use to be cool, but in the 90’s that all changed. It used to be that, if you were a computer expert, you had to wear plaid or a pocket protector or suspenders or something that announced to the world that you couldn’t quite fit in. Not anymore. Now, the intelligent and geeky have eked out for themselves a modicum of respect at the very least, and “geek is chic.” The Modern, Cool Nerd is intelligent, knowledgable and always the person to call in a crisis (needing computer advice/an arcane bit of trivia knowledge). They are the one you want as your lifeline in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (or the one up there, winning the million bucks)! Congratulations! Thanks Again! – THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST
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My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
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You scored higher than 99% on nerdiness
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You scored higher than 99% on geekosity
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